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FRANCES  E.  WILLARD 


LONDON,  1893. 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  LIFE 

FRANCES  E.  WILLARD 

A   MEMORIAL  VOLUME 

BY 

ANNA  A.  GORDON 

For  twenty-one  years  her  private  secretary 

INTRODUCTION  BY 

LADY   HENRY  SOMERSET 
With  Character  Sketches  and  Memorial  Tributes 

BY 

THE  GENERAL  OFFICERS  OF  THE  WORLD'S  AND  THE  NATIONAL  W.  C.  T.  U.,  ENGLISH 
LEADERS,  DR.  EDWARD   EVERETT   HALE,  DR.  FRANK  W.  GUNSAULUS,  DR. 
NEWELL  DWIGHT  HILLIS,  PRESIDENT  HENRY  WADE  ROGERS,  DR.  MILTON 
S.  TERRY,  DR.  C.  J.  LITTLE,  DR.  CHARLES  F.  BRADLEY,  JOSEPH  COOK, 
JOHN  G.  WOOLLEY,  COL.  GEO.  W.  BAIN,  MARY  LOWE  DICKINSON, 
MARY  A.  LATHBURY,  ELIZABETH  STUART  PHELPS  WARD,  MAPY 
A.  LIVERMORE,  SUSAN  B.  ANTHONY,  LILLIAN  WHITING, 
BISHOP  VINCENT,  BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON,  ELIZABETH 
CADY  STANTON,  FRANCIS  E.  CLARK,  CONSUL  BCOTH- 
TUCKER,  MAUD  BALLINGTON  BOOTH,  Hor.  JOHN 
D.  LONG,  DWIGHT  L.  MOODY,  DR.  THEO- 
DORE L.  CUYLER,  RABBI  HIRSCH,  PUN- 
DITA   RAMABAI,    AND    OTHER 
DISTINGUISHED  PERSONS. 


PUBLISHED   BY  THE 

WOMAN'S  TEMPERANCE  PUBLISHING  ASSOCIATION 
CHICAGO,  ILL, 


COPYRIGHT,  1898,  BY 

THE  WOMAN'S  TEMPERANCE  PUBLISHING  ASSOCIATION 
All  rights  reserved 


>w 


"  0  young  Mariner, 
You  from  the  haven 
Under  the  sea-cliff, 
You  that  are  watching 
The  gray  Magician 
With  eyes  of  wonder, 
7  am  Merlin, 
And  /  am  dying, 
/  am  Merlin 
Who  follow  The  Gleam. 

"  And  so  to  the  land's 
Last  limit  I  came 


And  can  no  longer, 

But  die  rejoicing, 

For  thro'  the  Magic 

Of  Him  the  Mighty, 

Who  taught  me  in  childhood, 

There  on  the  border 

Of  boundless  Ocean, 

And  all  but  in  Heaven 

Hovers  The  Gleam. 

"  Not  of  the  sunlight, 
Not  of  the  moonlight, 
Not  of  the  starlight ! 
O  young  Mariner, 
Down  to  the  haven, 
Call  your  companions, 
Launch  your  vessel, 
And  crowd  your  canvas, 
And,  ere  it  vanishes 
Over  the  margin, 
After  it,  follow  it, 
Follow  The  Gleam." 

—  Tennyson. 


300845 


CONTENTS 


PART  I 

« 

BIOGRAPHY 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    ANCESTRAL  GIFTS    .        .' *-,.        .  17 

II.     CHILDHOOD          ....:. .  22 

III.  STUDENT  LIFE         -.•••'     .        .  '      .        .        .        .        .        .  35 

IV.  RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT •  46 

V.    TEACHER  —  PRECEPTRESS  —  DEAN  .        .        .        .        ,54 

VI.    A  TRAVELER  ABROAD        • 67 

VII.     THE  CHOICE  OF  A  CAREER .  92 

-VIII.     ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  OF  THE  WOMAN'S  CHRISTIAN  TEM- 
PERANCE UNION 98 

IX.     FOUNDER  OF  THE  WORLD'S  WOMAN'S   CHRISTIAN  TEMPER- 
ANCE UNION      ...       ..        .        .     '   .        .        .  147 

X.     A  GREAT  MOTHER        . 204 

XI.     IN  THE  MOTHER  COUNTRY       .        .        .        .-     ..        .        .  216 

XII.     ANSWERING  ARMENIA'S  CRY        .        .        .        .        .         .  258 

XIII.  OLD  HAUNTS  AND  HOMES  REVISITED      .  270 

XIV.  NEARING  THE  HEAVENLY  HOME 282 

XV.    TRANSLATION            292 


PART  II 

IN  MEMORIAM 

THE  COMMEMORATIVE  SERVICES — NEW  YORK  CITY;  CHURCHVILLE, 
N.  Y. ;  WILLARD  HALL,  CHICAGO  ;  EVANSTON  ;  ROSE  HILL 
CEMETERY  .....  .  «  .  .  .  299 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES  —  TRIBUTES 334 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


FRANCES  E.  WILLARD. 

PHOTOGRAPH  —  Miss  WILLARD,  LONDON,  1893. 

REV.  SAMUEL  WILLARD. 

Miss  WILLARD' s  BIRTHPLACE,  OBERLIN  RESIDENCE,  FOREST  HOME. 

SCHOOL  BUILDINGS  AND  WOMAN'S  COLLEGE. 

CHURCHES  —  CHURCHVILLE  —  OGDEN  —  JANESVILLE  —  EVANSTON. 

KATHARINE  A.  JACKSON. 

"Mv  FOUR." 

ANNA  A.  GORDON. 

GENERAL  OFFICES  OF  THE  NATIONAL  W.  C.  T.  U. 

THE  TEMPLE. 

WILLARD  FOUNTAIN. 

MARBLE  BUST,  BY  ANNE  WHITNEY. 

THE  GENERAL  OFFICERS  OF  THE  WORLD'S  W.  C.  T.  U. 

Miss  WILLARD  IN  HER  "DEN." 

THE  POLYGLOT  PETITION. 

LADY  HENRY  SOMERSET,  1890. 

ST.  COURAGEOUS,  HER  DAUGHTER  FRANCES  AND  ANNA  A.  GORDON. 

Miss  WILLARD,  LONDON. 

INTERIOR  VIEWS,  EASTNOR  CASTLE,  ENGLAND. 

Miss  WILLARD  IN  "THE  COTTAGE,"  REIGATE,  ENGLAND. 

GROUP    PHOTOGRAPH  —  REST    COTTAGE,    CATSKILLS    COTTAGE,    EASTNOR 

CASTLE,  REIGATE  COTTAGE. 

A  GROUP  OF  ARMENIANS,  MARSEILLES,  FRANCE,  1896. 
HILL  HOMESTEAD — WILLARD  HOME. 

PHOTOGRAPH  GROUP — FROM  CHILDHOOD  TO  PRESENT  TIME. 
THE  EMPIRE  HOTEL,  NEW  YORK  CITY. 
KATHARINE  WILLARD  BALDWIN. 

Miss  WILLARD' s  SUCCESSOR  AS  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  NATIONAL  W.  C.  T.  U. 
Miss  WILLARD' s  SUCCESSOR  AS  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  WORLD'S  W.  C.  T.  U. 
PLATFORM  OF  WILLARD  HALL,  FEBRUARY  23,  1898. 
MRS.  MARY  B.  WILLARD  AND  HER  DAUGHTER,  MARY. 
NAMESAKES. 


PREFACE 

THE  sending  forth  of  a  Memorial  Volume  at  the  loving 
insistence  of  the  General  Officers  of  the  National  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  is  a  sad  and  sacred  privilege 
intrusted  to  me  because  for  twenty-one  years  God  gave  me  that 
which  was  my  highest  joy,  the  opportunity  to  share  the  most 
toilsome  period  of  Frances  E.  Willard's  sublime  and  heroic  life. 
It  is  brought  out  thus  early  to  meet  an  immediate  demand  and 
is  published  by  the  Woman's  Temperance  Publishing  Association, 
the  official  Publishing  House  of  the  National  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  Union. 

I  could  not  have  undertaken  the  work  without  the  approval 
and  sympathetic  co-operation  of  Lady  Henry  Somerset,  that 
loyal  and  great-hearted  friend,  who  by  the  law  of  kinship  among 
great  souls '  was  closely  united  to  Miss  Willard  in  endeavor, 
achievement  and  ideals.  The  generous  assistance  of  two  of 
Chicago's  leading  clergymen,  Dr.  Frank  W.  Gunsaulus  and  Dr. 
Newell  Dwight  Hillis,  is  also  gratefully  acknowledged,  together 
with  suggestions  and  contributions  from  many  valued  friends. 

Since  the  volume  must  be  devoted  in  large  part  to  character 
sketches,  tributes,  and  a  description  of  the  commemorative  serv- 
ices, it  is  evident  that  anything  beyond  an  outline  biography 


12  PREFACE. 

would  be  impossible;  but  we  believe  this  picture  of  Miss  Willard's 
remarkable  and  winsome  personality  will  deepen  in  the  hearts  of 
the  people  she  loved,  the  desire  to  hold  aloft  her  white  banner 
of  purity  and  peace,  patriotism  and  prohibition,  the  protection  of 
the  home  and  the  redemption  of  humanity. 

Among  Miss  Willard's  treasures  long  and  carefully  guarded, 
I  have  found  a  little  book  bearing  the  title,  ' '  Memoir  of  Nathan 
Dickerman, "  probably  the  first  memorial  biography  on  which  her 
childish  eyes  rested.  On  the  fly  leaf  is  written:  "Read  on  the 
long,  lonesome  Sundays  at  Forest  Home  in  my  childhood.  I 
remember  a  delicate,  exquisite  odor  that  adhered  to  the  book 
from  its  relation  somewhere  with  a  sweet  and  pervasive  perfume 
so  that  I  early  got  the  notion  of  fragrance  and  religion  as 
inseparable. " 

Truly,  ' '  pure  religion  and  undefiled  "  is  inseparable  from  the 
fragrance  of  Frances  Willard's  life.  Strong,  courageous,  indom- 
itable, yet  a  fair  sweet  flower  ' '  whose  petals  and  whose  perfume 
expand  so  far  that  we  are  all  enfolded  and  sheltered  in  its 
tenderness  and  beauty." 


CHICAGO,  March   10,  i 


INTRODUCTORY 

BY 

Somerset 


CABLE  has  come  asking  me  to  send  an  introduction  to 
the  memorial  biography  that  is  being  prepared  of  the 
greatest  woman  philanthropist  of  our  generation.  I  do 
not  hesitate  at  the  use  of  this  word  '  '  greatest.  "  I  know  that  time 
alone  can  prove  the  worth  of  any  work,  and  that  only  down  the 
perspective  of  the  years  are  we  able  to  gauge  the  comparative 
importance  of  the  human  lives  that  have  made  history;  but  I  am 
persuaded  that,  when  the  annals  of  the  nineteenth  century  are 
written,  when  the  record  of  the  modern  movement  that  has  meta- 
morphosed the  position  of  woman  comes  to  be  told,  Frances 
Willard's  name  will  stand  pre-eminent  as  the  one  who  saw  with  a 
keen  prophetic  eye  ahead  of  her  time,  who  realized  the  dangers, 
who  steered  clear  of  the  rocks  and  shoals  that  beset  any  great 
change,  and  who  furnished  the  women,  not  only  of  a  great  conti- 
nent but  the  world  over,  with  a  just  realization  of  their  rightful 
position,  and  with  that  safe-guarding  gospel,  '  '  Womanliness  first 
—  afterward  what  you  will."  The  Temperance  cause  was  the 
open  door  through  which  she  entered  into  her  service  for  the  world. 
The  defense  of  woman,  her  uplift,  her  education  for  the  widening 
way,  was  the  task  she  set  herself  to  accomplish.  But  to  no  special 
Cause  did  Frances  Willard  belong,  her  life  was  the  property  of 
Humanity;  and  I  believe  that  there  was  not  one  single  cry  that 
could  rise  from  the  world,  not  one  single  wrong  that  could  be 
redressed,  not  one  '  '  wail  of  weakness  "  of  any  kind  that  did  not 
find  an  immediate  echo  in  her  heart,  that  did  not  call  her  to  rise 
and  go  forth  in  that  chivalric  strength  and  gentleness  which  have 

13 


i4  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

clad  her  as  with  a  holy  panoply  in  the  battle  of  life.  To  us  who 
knew  her  childlike  simple  spirit,  her  keen  intellect,  her  power  of 
sympathy,  the  hospitable  width  of  her  mind,  her  unerring  vision 
of  the  truth,  it  seems  as  though  no  words  could  ever  paint  the 
woman  as  she  was,  and  only  time  will  tell  the  world  all  she  has 
accomplished.  But  this  I  dare  to  prophesy,  that  as  the  years  go 
by,  and  the  history  of  the  New  World  comes  to  be  read  by  those 
who  desire  to  know  the  builders  that  reared  a  civilization  so  great 
and  so  strong,  the  name  of  Frances  Willard  will  stand  by  the  side 
of  Lincoln,  Wendell  Phillips  and  Garrison. 

The  personal  grief  of  her  going  is  as  yet  too  deep  and  the 
wound  too  sore  to  make  it  possible  for  me  at  this  early  date  to 
write  all  that  is  in  my  mind  about  the  woman  who  was  so  near  and 
dear  a  friend;  but  as  she  has  done  me  the  honor  of  leaving  me  her 
literary  executor  in  conjunction  with  her  faithful  and  loved  Anna 
Gordon,  I  send  these  few  words  of  introduction  to  a  memorial  of 
the  inspired  life  that  has  meant  so  much  to  the  women  of  the  world. 

For  years  her  name  has  been  a  household  word  among  all 
those  who  work  for  the  uplift  of  Humanity  in  England;  and  I  well 
remember  the  day  when  I  first  received  a  letter  of  encouragement 
and  cheer  from  her,  words  so  sisterly  and  sympathetic  that  it 
seemed  as  though  a  new  light  had  shined  in  the  darkness  and  diffi- 
culty of  our  Temperance  reform.  In  that  letter  she  sent  me  a 
little  knot  of  white  ribbon,  and  all  these  years  that  little  bow  has 
been  pinned  into  my  Bible.  It  came  as  a  promise  of  the  most 
beautiful  friendship  that  ever  blessed  any  life. 

In  1891  I  saw  her  in  the  fullness  of  her  power  at  the  great 
Boston  Convention,  and  as  I  think  of  her  then,  it  seems  to  me 
that  no  other  will  ever  fill  the  place  that  she  has  left  vacant,  for  to 
no  other  could  be  given  that  rare  combination  of  power  and  per- 
fect gentleness,  of  playful  humor  and  tender  pathos,  that  strange 
mixture  of  reserve  with  an  almost  childlike  confidence,  and  above 
all  that  sublime  spirituality  that  always  made  you  feel  how  near 
she  was  to  the  invisible,  how  lightly  the  mantle  of  the  material  lay 
upon  her. 


INTR  OD  UCTOR  Y  1 5 

She  came  to  us  in  England  in  the  summer  of  1892,  bowed 
with  grief  at  the  loss  of  the  mother  who  had  been  the  strong  staff 
of  her  life,  who  had  upheld  her  through  her  work,  cheered  her  in 
her  discouragements,  pointed  her  onward  in  her  days  of  weariness. 
I  think  I  have  never  known  a  human  soul  feel  sorrow  so  acutely  as 
did  this  daughter,  when  for  a  while  a  cloud  hid  that  mother  from 
her  sight.  It  was  like  the  grieving  of  a  little  child  that  holds  out 
its  hands  in  the  dark  and  feels  in  vain  for  the  accustomed  clasp 
that  sent  it  happily  to  sleep.  She  was  welcomed  in  this  country 
as  I  suppose  no  philanthropist  has  been  welcomed  in  our  time. 
The  vast  meeting  that  was  organized  to  greet  her  at  Exeter  Hall 
was  the  most  representative  that  has  ever  assembled  in  that  his- 
toric building;  and  certainly  no  more  varied  gathering  of  philan- 
thropists could  be  brought  together  with  one  object  than  met  there 
that  day.  On  the  platform  sat  members  of  parliament,  digni- 
taries of  our  own  church,  and  temperance  leaders  from  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  leaders  of  the  Labor  movement  and  of  the  Salva- 
tion Army,  and  delegations  from  the  Methodist,  Baptist  and  Con- 
gregational Churches  and  the  Society  of  Friends.  The  chief 
Jewish  rabbi  sent  a  congratulatory  letter  and  signed  the  address  of 
welcome,  which  was  also  signed  by  hundreds  of  local  branches  of 
the  British  Women's  Temperance  Association. 

' '  What  went  ye  out  for  to  see  ?  "  was  the  question  that  one 
asked  one's  self  as  that  frail  form  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  vast 
assembly.  A  woman  called  of  God;  a  woman  who  preached 
Christ  in  politics,  Christ  in  the  home,  the  equality  of  the  purity  of 
men  and  women,  the  liberation  of  the  oppressed,  the  destruction 
of  legalized  wrong,  the  upbuilding  of  all  that  was  great  in  home, 
in  government,  and  in  the  nation.  And  she  who  had  gone  forth 
without  money  and  without  influence,  but  with  an  untarnished 
name,  a  clear  brain,  an  indomitable  will,  and  a  God-given  inspira- 
tion, had  in  her  twenty  years  of  work  gathered  round  her,  not  the 
sympathies  of  her  own  land  only,  but  the  admiration  and  good  will 
of  the  whole  English-speaking  race.  The  time  she  spent  in  Eng- 
land was  a  triumphal  procession,  and  greetings  awaited  her  in 


16  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

every  city  of  importance  throughout  the  whole  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland.  The  Synod  Hall  in  Edinburgh,  the  historic  temper- 
ance town  of  Preston,  Dublin  and  Glasgow,  vast  assemblies  in 
the  Free  Trade  Hall  in  Manchester,  packed  audiences  in  Liver- 
pool and  Birmingham  —  all  vied  to  do  her  honor;  and  wherever 
she  went,  her  clear,  incisive  thought,  the  pathos  and  power  of  her 
words,  and  perhaps  most  of  all  the  sweet,  gentle  woman  won  the 
heart  as  well  as  the  intellect  of  all  who  met  to  greet  her  and 
assembled  to  hear  her.  There  was  no  trait  in  Miss  Willard's  char- 
acter that  was  more  prominent  than  her  generous  power  of  help. 
If  an  idea  came  to  her,  she  had  no  thought  but  to  share  it  with  her 
fellow-workers.  Anything  that  she  had  said  was  common  prop- 
erty, anything  that  she  could  write  might  bear  another's  signature; 
to  help,  to  help  —  this  was  her  only  thought ;  for  she  was  inspired 
by  a  love  which  ' '  seeketh  not  her  own, "  but  that  gave  of  the  treas- 
ure that  had  been  poured  into  her  life  as  freely  as  the  sunshine 
ripens  and  blesses  the  world. 

"I  saw  a  saint  —  how  cans' t  thou  tell  that,  he 

Thou  sawest  was  a  saint? 
I  saw  one  like  to  Christ  so  luminously 
By  patient  deeds  of  love,  his  mortal  taint 
Seemed  made  his  groundwork  for  humility. 

"And  when  he  marked  me  downcast  utterly, 

Where  foul  I  sat  and  faint, 
Then  more  than  ever  Christ-like  kindled  he  ; 
And  welcomed  me  as  I  had  been  a  saint, 
Tenderly  stooping  low  to  comfort  me. 

"Christ  bade  him,   'Do  thou  likewise.'     Wherefore  he 

Waxed  zealous  to  acquaint 
His  soul  with  sin  and  sorrow,  if  so  be 
He  might  retrieve  some  latent  saint: 
'Lo,  I,  with  the  child  God  hath  given  to  me  !"' 

—  Christina  Rossetti. 


REV.  SAMUEL  WILLARD 
PASTOR  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTH  CHURCH,  BOSTON.    BORN,  1639 


CHAPTER  I 

ANCESTRAL    GIFTS 

Macaulay  was  shown  the  vast  clustering  vines 
in  Hampton  Court,  with  trunk  like  unto  a  tree,  he 
expressed  a  wish  to  behold  the  mother  root  in  Spain 
from  which  the  scion  was  cut.  Similarly,  we  confess  to  an  eager 
desire  to  trace  the  ancestral  forces  that  are  united  in  every  son  and 
daughter  of  genius.  No  great  soul  appears  suddenly.  The  foot- 
hills slope  upward  toward  the  mountain-minded  man.  Mental 
and  moral  capital  are  treasures  invested  for  us  by  our  forefathers. 
Nature  takes  the  grandsire's  ability  and  puts  it  out  at  compound 
interest  for  the  grandson.  Plato  says :  ' '  The  child  is  a  charioteer, 
driving  two  steeds  up  the  long,  ripe  hill;  one  steed  is  white,  repre- 
senting our  best  impulses ;  one  steed  is  dark,  standing  for  our  worst 
passions."  Who  gave  these  steeds  their  colors?  "  Our  fathers, " 
Plato  replies,  and  the  child  may  not  change  one  hair  white  or 
black.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  would  have  us  think  that  the 
child's  value  to  society  is  determined  one  hundred  years  before  its 
birth.  Back  of  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  was  a  father  who  was  at 
once  a  moral  hero  and  an  intellectual  giant,  and  a  mother  who 
gave  to  the  strong  Beecher  type  its  rich,  warm,  glowing  tones. 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  had  back  of  him  seven  generations  of 
scholars.  A  great  river  like  the  Nile  or  Mississippi  has  power  to 
bear  up  fleets  of  war  and  fleets  of  peace,  because  the  storms  of 
a  thousand  summers  and  the  snows  of  a  thousand  winters  have  lent 
it  depth  and  power.  And  the  measure  of  greatness  in  a  man  or 
woman  is  determined  by  the  intellectual  streams  and  the  moral 
tides  flowing  down  from  the  ancestral  hills  and  emptying  into  the 
human  soul. 

2  17 


1 8  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

In  every  great  soul,  however,  there  is  an  unexplored  remainder 
that  must  be  referred  to  God  alone.  The  secret  of  greatness  is  in 
part  ancestral,  but  chiefly  divine.  God  breathes  it.  When  the 
explorer  has  traced  the  river  Nile  back  to  the  initial  lakes,  he  has 
still  fallen  short  of  the  sources  of  that  mighty  stream.  Above 
him,  in  the  distant  clouds,  are  the  secret  and  invisible  sources  that 
fill  the  springs  and  crowd  the  water  on  in  massy  flow.  And  having 
traced  every  great  soul  back  to  the  traits  of  distant  ancestors,  we 
find  that  the  source  of  genius  is  in  that  holy  of  holies  where  dwell 
clouds  and  thick  darkness.  For  in  the  last  analysis  genius  is  an 
unread  riddle.  It  is  God  who  baptizes  the  hero  or  heroine  with  a 
divine  afflatus,  girds  the  man  and  woman  for  the  life  task,  and 
sends  them  forth  with  faculties  like  unto  the  prophet's  sword,  ' '  all 
dipped  in  heave"n. " 

Miss  Willard's  father,  Josiah  Flint  Willard,  born  in  Wheelock, 
Vermont,  and  her  mother,  Mary  Thompson  Hill  Willard,  a  native 
of  Danville  in  the  same  State,  fell  heir  to  all  the  best  qualities 
that  have  ripened  upon  the  rich  soil  of  New  England,  and  they  in 
turn  bequeathed  their  united  treasure  to  the  daughter,  whom  they 
trained  for  her  career  as  teacher,  author,  orator,  philanthropist  and 
social  reformer. 

Major  Simon  Willard,  of  Horsmonden,  Kent,  the  first  Willard 
to  settle  in  the  New  World  in  1634,  was  one  of  the  founders  of 
Concord,  Massachusetts,  afterward  famous  as  the  home  of  Emer- 
son, Hawthorne,  Thoreau  and  the  Alcotts,  and  as  the  literary 
center  of  New  England.  Major  Willard  was  a  Puritan  who  took 
for  his  intellectual  motto,  ' '  Truth  for  authority,  not  authority  for 
truth. "  The  early  history  of  Massachusetts  is  full  of  allusions  to 
his  many  and  varied  services  in  an  official  capacity,  all  reflecting 
high  honor  upon  his  character  as  a  man  of  integrity,  ability  and 
energy.  '  <  He  was  early  called  into  positions  of  public  trust,  dis- 
ciplined by  the  teachings  of  toil,  deprivation  and  varied  experience, 
and  had  the  confidence  and  affection  of  an  enlightened  commu- 
nity throughout  all  the  emergencies  of  a  new  State. "  Among  the 
immediate  descendants  of  this  rugged  and  righteous  ancestor  are 


ANCESTRAL    GIFTS  19 

two  presidents  of  Harvard  University,  also  Rev.  Samuel  Willard, 
pastor  of  the  Old  South  Church,  Boston,  who  opposed  the  hanging 
of  the  witches,  and  Solomon  Willard,  of  Quincy,  Massachusetts, 
the  architect  of  Bunker  Hill  Monument,  who  refused  pay  for  his 
services,  of  whom  Edward  Everett  said,  ' '  His  chief  characteristic 
was  that  he  wanted  to  do  everything  for  everybody  for  nothing." 

Miss  Willard's  great  grandfather,  Rev.  Elijah  Willard,  was  for 
forty  years  pastor  of  a  church  in  Dublin,  near  Keene,  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  served  as  chaplain  throughout  the  Revolutionary  War. 
Miss  Willard  loved  to  tell  the  following  droll  story  of  his  powers  as 
a  peacemaker.  A  member  of  his  church  had  called  another  ' '  an 
old  skinflint, "  whereupon  accusation  was  brought  by  the  offended 
party.  When  the  authorities  of  the  church  were  sitting  in  council 
on  this  grave  piece  of  indecorum,  Elder  Willard  suggested,  in  his 
character  of  presiding  officer,  that  they  should  look  in  the  diction- 
ary and  see  what  a  ' '  skinflint "  was.  This  met  with  great  favor. 
But  lo,  and  behold!  there  was  no  such  word  in  the  book  referred 
to.  The  Elder  then  said,  that  inasmuch  as  there  was  no  defini- 
tion there  given,  he  would  appeal  to  the  brother  who  had  used  the 
word  to  give  the  definition.  This  was  done,  the  brother  replying, 
' '  Why,  Elder,  what  I  meant  was  that  Brother  —  -  is  a  down- 
right clever  sort  of  a  man."  It  is  shrewdly  suspected  that  Elder 
Willard  prearranged  this  reconciliation,  dictionary  and  all. 

Miss  Willard's  father  was  a  man  elegant  in  person,  of  charm- 
ing manners,  devoutly  religious,  gifted  with  a  fine  mind,  an  inflexi- 
ble will,  and  unusual  powers  of  thought  and  speech.  His  daughter 
Frances  further  describes  him  as  ' '  thoroughly  intellectual,  an 
insatiable  reader,  and  a  man  possessing  exceedingly  fine  taste." 

Miss  Willard's  mother,  Mary  Thompson  Hill,  came  of  a 
singularly  gifted  family  and  one  greatly  blessed  of  God.  Her 
grandfather  Hill  was  a  man  of  self-sacrificing  integrity.  ' '  When, 
early  in  his  career,  he  had  become  security  for  a  friend  who  failed, 
men  of  good  conscience  came  to  him,  urging  that  a  man's  family 
was  '  a  preferred  creditor '  in  all  business  relations,  and  that  he 
should  refuse  to  give  up  all  he  had  to  satisfy  another  man's  credit- 


20  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

ors.  But  he  was  a  man  of  clean  hands  —  swearing  to  his  own  hurt 
and  changing  not.  He  only  answered,  '  It  is  the  nature  of  a  bonds- 
man when  the  principal  fails  to  stand  in  the  gap. '  And  he  stood 
in  the  gap,  losing  all  his  fortune  rather  than  fail  to  be  true  to  the 
implied  promise  of  his  bond." 

In  Mrs.  Willard's  maternal  grandfather,  Nathaniel  Thompson, 
of  Durham,  New  Hampshire,  we  find  the  moral  courage  that  char- 
acterized our  fearless  reformer.  He  was  once  a  guest  at  a  dinner 
where  everyone  drank  the  health  of  the  tyrant  whom  Americans 
were  fighting,  each  saying  as  glasses  were  clinked,  ' '  King  George's 
health  and  it  shall  go  round,"  when  the  young  hero,  Nathaniel, 
startled  the  disloyal  Tories  by  crying  out,  "  Washington  s  health 
and  it  shall  go  round, "  and  was  nothing  daunted,  though  driven 
from  the  room  and  in  danger  of  his  life.  Her  father,  John  Hill,  was 
a  kind  of  moral  Hercules.  Long  before  Garrison  and  Phillips, 
Channing  and  Beecher  had  meditated  their  attack  through  voice 
and  pen  upon  slavery,  this  youth  made  himself  known  in  his  com- 
munity as  an  uncompromising  foe  of  the  slave  market  and  the  hor- 
rors of  the  cotton  field.  Oft  in  hours  of  retrospection  did  Miss 
Willard  relate  to  her  listening  friends  an  incident  in  her  grand- 
father's career  that  interprets  the  quality  of  his  mind  and  heart. 
One  spring  he  employed  a  colored  youth  to  help  in  the  task  of 
sheep-shearing.  The  young  African  was  the  first  of  his  people  to 
find  his  way  into  that  neighborhood,  and  his  appearance  at  church 
or  upon  the  streets  of  the  village  created  a  profound  sensation.  But 
John  Hill  took  the  young  man  to  his  home  and  brought  him  to  his 
table.  Just  before  the  family  assembled  for  the  evening  meal  one 
of  his  daughters  went  to  her  father  with  a  private  request.  ' '  Sister 
Abigail, "  she  said,  ' '  has  a  very  poor  appetite  and  cannot  relish  her 
food  at  the  table  with  that  colored  man;  can  he  wait?"  "No," 
replied  the  father,  "but  she  can."  John  Hill  was  a  man  of  great 
courage  and  decision,  widely  known  for  his  democratic  principles 
and  his  deep  interest  in  all  those  agencies  that  were  fitted  to 
develop  the  intellectual  and  moral  forces  of  the  community,  while 
his  wife,  gentle  Polly  Thompson,  possessing  a  character  described 


ANCESTRAL   GIFTS 


21 


as  "almost  angelic,"  was  equally  well  known  for  her  zeal  for 
school,  college  and  church. 

Scientists  tell  us  that  climate  affects  character;  that  the  chil- 
dren of  ease  and  abundance  in  the  tropics  are  the  children  of  las- 
situde and  laziness,  without  tools,  without  books,  without  home, 
church  or  school;  while  civilization  follows  the  belt  of  the  snow- 
drift, and  in  the  rigorous  warfare  with  those  elements  named 
winter,  adversity,  poverty,  struggle,  man  develops  self-reliance, 
hardihood,  courage  —  develops  instruments  also  for  intellectual 
culture  and  moral  wealth.  And  certain  it  is  that  the  oak  and  rock 
of  the  New  England  hills  seem  to  have  repeated  themselves  in  the 
iron  will  and  the  unyielding  courage  of  the  Willard  family.  Their 
very  name  means  ' '  one  who  wills, "  and  this  doubtless  explains  the 
family  motto,  ' '  Gaudet  patientia  duris "  (patience  rejoices  in 
hardships). 

Born  of  such  parents,  blessed  with  such  gifts  of  nature  and 
nurture,  God  trained  Frances  Willard  for  her  life-task  and  made 
her  ready  to  help  the  pilgrim  hosts  with  their  sorrows,  sufferings 
and  sins. 


ON. THIS  FASH  DWELT 

SIMON  WILLARO 
ME  or  ret  Foo.wfss  OF  uncoil) 

. WHO  OIOGOOO  SERVICE  FCR 
~  TOWN  ANOCOLONr 
IOH  MORE  TM«N  FOSTT. TEAKS 


CHAPTER  II 

CHILDHOOD 

was  a  rarely  endowed  home  into  which  Frances  Elizabeth 
Willard  was  born  September  28th,  1839,  in  Churchville, 
New  York;  a  home  sheltered  from  adverse  chance  to  soul  or 
body  by  the  father's  strength  of  heart  and  arm  and  will ;  with  the 
mother-climate  warm  within,  winning  out  and  fostering  all  whole- 
some developments  —  a  richly  nurtured  child-garden,  where  the 
sturdy  small  plants  struck  deep  root  and  spread  wide  leafage  to 
the  air,  catching  every  drop  of  pure  knowledge  and  every  beam  of 
home-love  falling  within  its  rays.  Here  the  "rosy-white  flower  of 
the  child's  consciousness  unfolded  its  five-starred  cup  to  the  bend- 
ing blue  above." 

Baby  Frances  talked  before  she  could  walk,  ' '  speaking  quite 
wisely  at  fourteen  months,"  but  not  until  she  was  two  years  of  age 
did  her  little  feet  begin  their  pilgrimage  in  obedience  to  the  dictates 
of  that  electric  brain  and  humanity-loving  heart. 

Sixty  years  ago  was  almost  the  time  of  the  hegira  from  the 
East.  The  rough  line  of  the  pioneers,  the  sappers  and  miners  of 
civilization,  had  finished  their  task,  and  made  clear  paths  through 
the  wilderness  and  the  woods.  Then  everywhere,  from  cultured 
and  thoughtful  homes  in  the  East,  the  exodus  began,  no  longer 
going  forth  by  individuals,  man  by  man,  each  fighting  for  his  own 
hand,  but  by  families,  friendly  and  allied.  The  future  would 
bring  new  outward  conditions,  but  they  carried  with  them  the 
means  and  appliances.  Indeed  they  were  in  themselves,  in  apti- 
tude and  skill  of  heart,  mind  and  hand,  the  mature  human 
harvest  of  all  the  fullness  of  the  past  —  that  human  harvest  which 
is  at  once  the  summing  up  of  the  old  and  the  seed  of  the  new. 


CHILDHOOD  23 

In  this  onward  march  it  was  fitting  that  the  Willards  should  have 
their  place.  Reared  amid  the  loveliest  surroundings,  royal  Amer- 
icans in  heart  and  mind,  members  of  the  old  stone  church,  which 
bore  the  simple  name,  ' '  The  church  of  God  in  Ogden, "  and  recog- 
nized no  lines  of  doctrinal  difference  in  worship  and  life,  but 
united  on  the  ground  of  acknowledgment  of  the  Lord  and  His 
Word  and  a  life  of  loving  obedience  thereto,  it  was  no  wonder 
that  in  the  providence  of  God  these  two  were  sent  out  as  choice 
and  chosen  seed  for  the  new  lands  of  the  West. 

Their  first  journey  overland  from  Churchville,  New  York,  ter- 
minated at  Oberlin,  Ohio,  where  five  years  of  student  life  at  the 
college  were  invested  by  these  discerning  parents,  who  had  both 
been  successful  teachers  in  the  Empire  State. 

Here  the  beloved  sister  Mary  was  born,  and  here  the  older 
children,  Oliver  and  Frances,  received  in  awe  and  love  the  early 
impress  of  the  ideas  of  religion  and  scholarship.  The  ardent 
desire  for  learning  which  had  hitherto  led  the  parents  on  as  by  a 
pillar  of  fire  changed  to  the  threatening  cloud  of  the  father's  failing 
health,  which  imperatively  demanded,  so  the  physicians  said,  the 
free  air  of  the  open  West  and  the  simplest  farming  exercise. 

In  the  spring  of  1846  we  find  them  again  following  westward. 
Three  of  the  quaint,  roomy,  white-hooded  prairie  schooners,  which 
were  then  the  common  feature  of  Western  highways,  carried  the 
intrepid  family.  The  father  led  the  way.  The  little  son,  ambitious 
of  manhood,  with  gravely  assumed  responsibility  guided  the  strong 
and  gentle  horses  which  pulled  the  second  vehicle  over  the  smooth 
prairie  miles  or  the  jouncing  corduroy  lengths  that  bridged  incon- 
venient morasses.  The  mother,  with  her  baby  girls  perched  safely 
beside  her  in  the  fine  seat  father's  old-fashioned  desk  made  when  it 
was  properly  pillowed,  brought  up  the  rear. 

They  passed  through  Chicago,  then  chiefly  notable  as  a  place 
in  vast  need  of  improvement,  and  continuing  their  three  weeks' 
journey,  save  the  Sunday  "  rests, "  which  were  strictly  observed, 
came  at  length  to  the  banks  of  the  beautiful  Rock  River,  near 
Janesville,  Wisconsin,  about  fourteen  miles  from  Beloit.  Here 


24  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

they  stopped.  To  the  west  was  the  winding  river,  serene  and 
broad,  with  its  spacious  outlook  to  the  setting  sun.  To  the  east, 
the  illimitable  prairie,  to  be  for  ages  green  with  the  springing 
wheat,  yellow  with  the  ripening  grain,  and  every  morning  glorified 
in  all  its  level  miles  by  the  streaming  light  and  abundant  promise 
of  the  sun  at  its  rising.  To  right  and  left  the  wooded  hills,  like 
softly  sheltering  arms,  gathered  proteqtingly  around.  What  more 
perfect  place  for  a  home-nest  to  be  ? 

Miss  Willard  has  often  pictured  to  us  the  simple  dwelling  that 
was  soon  erected  on  this  charming  site,  ' '  Forest  Home, "  a  pic- 
turesque cottage,  with  rambling  roof,  gables,  dormer-windows,  little 
porches,  crannies,  and  out-of-the-way  nooks.  ' '  The  bluffs,  so  char- 
acteristic of  Wisconsin,  rose  about  it  on  the  right  and  left.  Groves 
of  oak  and  hickory  were  on  either  hand;  a  miniature  forest  of 
evergreens  almost  concealed  the  cottage  from  the  view  of  pass- 
ers-by; the  Virginia  creeper  twined  at  will  around  the  pillars 
of  the  piazza  and  over  the  parlor  windows,  while  its  rival,  the 
Michigan  rose,  clambered  over  the  trellis  and  balustrade  to  the 
roof.  The  air  was  laden  with  the  perfume  of  flowers.  Through  the 
thick  and  luxuriant  growth  of  shrubbery  were  paths  which  strayed 
off  aimlessly,  tempting  the  feet  of  the  curious  down  their  myste- 
rious aisles. "  Here  for  twelve  happy  years  these  three  children  lived 
an  idyllic  life  of  love  and  labor,  play  and  study  and  prayer. 

Happy  the  mother  who  could  say  of  her  child,  she  was  ' '  affec- 
tionate, confiding,  intuitive,  precocious,  original.  She  early  mani- 
fested an  exceeding  fondness  for  books.  She  believed  in  herself 
and  in  her  teachers.  Her  bias  toward  certain  studies  and  pursuits 
was  very  marked.  Even  in  the  privacy  of  her  own  room  she  was 
often  in  an  ecstasy  of  aspiration.  She  strongly  repelled  occupa- 
tions not  to  her  taste,  but  was  eager  to  grapple  with  principles, 
philosophies  and  philanthropies,  and  unwearyingly  industrious 
along  her  favorite  lines." 

Happy  the  daughter  who  could  say  of  her  mother:  ''My 
mother  held  that  nature's  standard  ought  to  be  restored,  and  that 
the  measure  of  each  human  being's  endowment  was  the  only 


CHILDHOOD  25 

reasonable  measure  of  that  human  being's  sphere.  She  had  small 
patience  with  artificial  diagrams  placed  before  women  by  the  dic- 
tates of  society  in  which  the  boundaries  of  their  especial  '  sphere ' 
were  marked  out  for  them,  and  one  of  her  favorite  phrases  was, 
'  Let  a  girl  grow  as  a  tree  grows  —  according  to  its  own  sweet  will. ' 
She  looked  at  the  mysteries  of  human  progress  from  the  angle  of 
vision  made  by  the  eyes  of  both  the  man  and  the  woman,  and 
foresaw  that  the  mingling  of  justice  and  mercy  in  the  great  deci- 
sions that  affected  society  would  give  deliverance  from  political 
corruption  and  governmental  one-sidedness." 

The  opportunities  that  came  to  the  children  at  Forest  Home 
were  opportunities  to  be  useful;  to  read,  to  study,  to  work  with 
their  hands,  to  love  each  other,  tc  reverence  nature  and  nature's 
God.  The  visitors  at  first  were  chiefly  the  chipmunks  and  birds, 
change  of  season  and  turn  of  day.  Before  the  days  when  Froebel's 
name  became  familiar  to  the  tongue,  this  mother,  as  good  mothers 
always  have  done,  lived  with  her  children.  ' '  I  had  many  ambi- 
tions,"  she  said,  "but  I  disappeared  from  the  world  that  I  might 
reappear  at  some  future  day  in  my  children. "  They  made  believe 
the  country  was  a  city;  they  organized  a  club  with  as  many  rules 
as  a  parliamentary  manual  and  printed  a  newspaper  of  which 
Frances  was  the  editor,  to  say  nothing  of  ' '  breaking  the  calf " 
to  circus  antics.  In  all  this  childish  activity  the  mother  was  aider 
and  abettor,  and  we  have  never  learned  that  she  discouraged  that 
marvelous  novel  of  adventure,  four  hundred  pages  long,  written  by 
the  aspiring  Frances  as  she  sat  in  the  top  of  her  favorite  old  oak, 
fhere  she  guarded  herself  from  all  intruders  (!)  by  fastening  to  the 
tree  a  board  with  these  words  printed  upon  it  in  large  letters: 


THE   EAGLE'S   NEST— BEWARE. 


While  the  mother  certainly  fostered  every  characteristic 
impulse  of  the  more  daring,  firmer-handed  Frances,  she  did  not 
fail  to  note,  encourage  and  assist  the  growth  of  Mary's  quieter 


26  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

genius,  and  reward  its  achievements  also  with  love  and  approba- 
tion. "  I  do  not  know  which  of  us  she  loved  the  more.  I  do  not 
think  the  question  ever  occurred  to  us.  Each  had  her  own  heaven 
in  our  mother's  heart,"  said  Frances,  years  afterward,  when  the 
name  of  Mary  and  the  life  motto  she  gave  to  Frances  with  her 
latest  breath,  ' '  Tell  everybody  to  be  good, "  had  been  carved  for 
many  a  year  on  the  headstone  at  Rose  Hill.  ' '  We  were  content, 
and  oh,  how  we  loved  one  another  !  " 

Amid  all  their  fun  and  frolic  and  endless  experiment  in  activ- 
ity there  was  much  solid  and  systematic  study.  Before  the  time 
when  the  little  brown  schoolhouse  was  built  in  the  woods,  the 
father  arranged  a  study  room  in  the  house,  with  desks  and  benches 
made  by  his  own  hands.  The  mother  gathered  in  some  neighbors' 
children,  themselves  without  other  advantages,  to  be  all  together 
with  her  own  brood,  under  her  own  eyes.  A  bright,  charming, 
accomplished  young  woman,  Miss  Anna  Burdick,  just  from  the 
East  and  Eastern  schools,  came  daily,  and  was  a  loved  and  delight- 
ful teacher.  The  Institute  for  the  Blind,  located  not  far  away, 
gave  them  additional  opportunities  for  musical  training,  while  they 
themselves,  in  the  establishment  of  various  outdoor  clubs,  the 
"Rustic"  and  others,  continued  to  study  afield  what  they  had 
learned  in  books  of  botany  and  natural  history,  while  the  exercises 
of  the  ' '  Studio, "  with  the  consequent  sketching  trips,  carried  the 
art  instruction  Miss  Burdick  began  quite  a  little  way  further.  In 
art,  however,  Mary  was  easily  first.  Frances  liked  better  to  dream, 
philosophize  and  plan  in  the  presence  of  a  beautiful  scene,  than 
to  patiently  draw  it.  Her  part  consisted  chiefly  in  stating  the 
"objects,"  arranging  the  routes  and  drafting  the  rules.  These 
rules  were  very  practical.  ' '  If  one  member  goes  off  alone,  he 
shall  let  Margaret  Ryan  know  of  it,  so  the  folks  needn't  be 
scared."  This  also  is  practical:  "There  shall  always  be  some- 
thing good  to  eat";  and  the  following  is  excellent:  "We,  the  mem- 
bers of  this  club,  hereby  choose  Fred  as  our  dog,  although  once  in 
a  while  we  may  take  Carlo.  Carlo  can  go  when  he  has  sense 
enough."  This  club  was  doubtless  the  one  having  for  its  object 


CHILDHOOD  27 

' '  to  tell  what  great  things  we  have  done  ourselves,  or  what  Oliver 
and  Loren  or  the  Hodge  boys  have,  or  Daniel  Boone,  or  anybody 
else. " 

Great  frolics  were  enjoyed  in  Forest  Home,  and  it  is  no  reflec- 
tion on  the  ' '  Peace  "  principles  dominating  her  later  life  that  here 
Frances  was  the  ringleader  in  the  exciting  ' '  Indian  fights  "  when 
mother  and  girls  tried  to  ' '  hold  the  fort "  against  ihe  invading 
enemy  —  two  boys  and  a  dog !  Then  it  was  that  Frances  as  Com- 
manding-General, issued  her  famous  order  to  ' '  have  ready  a  piece 
of  sparerib  to  entice  the  dog  away  from  those  two  dreadful 
Indians !  "  and  so  weaken  the  forces  to  be  encountered  —  a  piece  of 
strategy  she  remembered  in  after  days  as  possibly  applicable  to 
politics. 

Forest  Home  always  had  its  ' '  Fourth  of  July, "  celebrated 
with  intense  enthusiasm ;  ' '  Thanksgiving  was  passed  lightly  over 
in  that  new  country  where  there  were  no  absent  members  of  the 
family  to  come  home;  Christmas  made  them  hang  up  their  stock- 
ings and  find  but  little  there,  next  morning;  New  Year  hardly 
counted  at  all;  birthdays  cut  no  great  figure,  even  Washington's 
going  for  almost  nothing,  but  the  Fourth  of  July!  —  that  came  in, 
went  on  and  passed  out  in  a  blaze  of  patriotic  glory.  This  does 
not  mean  fireworks,  though,  and  a  big  noise,  for  never  a  cracker 
or  torpedo  snapped  off  their  Yankee  Doodle  '  sentiments '  on  the 
old  farm  in  all  the  years.  The  children  had  no  money  to  spend, 
and  if  they  had  it  would  not  have  been  allowed  to  pass  away  in 
smoke.  So  much  had  their  mother  talked  to  them  about  America 
•that  their  native  land  was  to  them  a  cherishing  mother,  like  their 
own  in  gentleness  and  strength,  only  having  so  many  more  chil- 
dren, grateful  and  glad,  under  her  thoughtful  care.  They  loved 
to  give  her  praises,  and  half  believed  that  some  time,  when  they 
grew  big  enough  and  got  out  into  the  wide,  wide  world,  they 
should  find  her  and  kneel  to  offer  her  their  loving  service  and  to 
ask  her  blessing."  Nothing  could  be  more  interesting  than  Miss 
Willard's  graphic  description  of  those  glorious  "Fourths,"  pro- 
phetic of  the  temperance  reform,  the  independence  of  women  and 


28  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

the  bringing  of  the  home  spirit  into  all  the  world's  affairs;  "for 
when  temperance  triumphs, "  she  was  wont  to  say,  ' '  there  will  be 
no  drinking  on  the  Fourth;  when  women  march  in  the  procession 
there  will  be  no  powder;  when  father,  mother  and  the  children 
have  equal  part  in  the  great  celebration  it  will  be  very  peaceable 
and  more  an  affair  of  the  heart  than  of  the  lungs." 

We  are  told  on  the  best  authority  that  the  only  piece  of  sew- 
ing Frances  Willard  ever  attempted  without  complaint  was  when 
she  helped  make  a  flag  for  the  patriotic  procession  the  children 
had  planned  for  one  of  these  great  days.  To  be  sure,  this  flag 
was  only  an  old  pillow  case  with  red  calico  stripes  sewed  on  and 
gilt  paper  stars  pinned  in  the  corner,  and  they  lifted  it  up  upon  a 
broomstick  (again  a  bit  of  prophecy,  mayhap),  but  it  was  their 
country's  flag,  and  Oliver,  who  marched  proudly  at  the  head  of 
the  procession,  flag  in  hand,  was  gallant  enough  to  say  to  Frances 
when  half  the  distance  agreed  upon  had  been  traversed,  ' '  Wouldn't 
you  like  to  carry  the  flag  half  the  time  ?  "  Frances  tells  us  she 
was  not  at  all  backward  about  coming  forward  in  that  kind  of  busi- 
ness, and  her  father  and  mother  laughed  heartily  when  she  changed 
the  order  of  exercises  by  saying,  ' '  That  '  Yankee  Doodle '  we 
were  playing  (nobody  had  dreamed  before  that  it  had  professed  to 
be  a  tune)  does  not  go  very  well ;  let  us  try  '  Forever  Float ' !  "  so 
they  all  joined  in  singing  as  she  held  the  flag: 

"  Forever  float  that  standard  sheet 

Where  breathes  the  foe  but  falls  before  us, 
With  freedom's  soil  beneath  our  feet, 

And  freedom's  banner  streaming  o'er  us."  , 

Frances  slyly  whispered  to  her  sister  Mary,   ' '  That's  a  clear  case 
of   We,  Us  and  Company;  why  can't  it  always  stay  so?  " 

Just  a  peep  into  the  girlish  journals  of  those  halcyon  days 
will  delight  the  children  who  love  and  reverence  Miss  Willard,  and 
will  reveal  the  first  pledge  that  long  ago  she  administered  for  the 
peace  of  the  community  and  the  good  of  the  parties  concerned, 
and  to  which  her  small  sister  set  her  signature.  This  extract  is 
taken  from  Mary's  neatly  written  book: 


CHILDHOOD  29 

Frank  said  we  might  as  well  have  a  ship  if  we  did  live  on  shore;  so  we  took 
a  hencoop  pointed  at  the  top,  put  a  big  plank  across  it  and  stood  up,  one  at  each 
end,  with  an  old  rake  handle  apiece  to  steer  with  ;  up  and  down  we  went,  slow 
when  it  was  a  calm  sea  and  fast  when  there  was  a  storm,  until  the  old  hen 
clucked  and  the  chickens  all  ran  in,  and  we  had  a  lively  time.  Frank  was  cap- 
tain and  I  was  mate.  We  made  out  charts  of  the  sea  and  rules  about  how  to 
navigate  when  it  was  good  weather,  and  how  when  it  was  bad.  We  put  up  a 
sail  made  of  an  old  sheet  and  had  great  fun,  until  I  fell  off  and  hurt  me. 

Today  Frank  gave  me  half  her  dog  Frisk,  that  she  bought  lately,  and  for 
her  pay  I  made  a  promise  which  mother  witnessed  and  here  it  is  : 

"I,  Mary  Willard,  promise  never  to  touch  anything  lying  or  being  upon 
Frank  Willard' s  writing  desk  which  father  gave  her.  I  promise  never  to  ask, 
either  by  speaking,  writing  or  signing,  or  in  any  other  way,  any  person  or  body 
to  take  off  or  put  on  anything  on  said  stand  and  desk  without  special  permis- 
sion from  said  F.  W.  I  promise  never  to  touch  anything  which  may  be  in 
something  upon  her  stand  and  desk  ;  I  promise  never  to  put  anything  on  it  or  in 
anything  on  it ;  I  promise  if  I  am  writing  or  doing  anything  else  at  her  desk  to 
go  away  the  minute  she  tells  me.  If  I  break  this  promise  I  will  let  the  said 
F.  W.  come  into  my  room  and  go  to  my  trunk  or  go  into  any  place  where  I 
keep  my  things  and  take  anything  of  mine  she  likes.  All  this  I  promise  unless 
entirely  different  arrangements  are  made.  These  things  I  promise  upon  my  most 
sacred  honor." 

From  ' '  Frank's  "  journal  of  the  same  period  we  quote  her  first 
poem,  composed  in  her  tenth  year,  which  proves  afresh  that  the 
thoughts  of  youth  ' '  are  long,  long  thoughts  " : 

' '  Am  I  almost  of  age,  am  I  almost  of  age  ? 
Said  a  poor  little  girl,  as  she  glanced  from  her  cage. 
How  long  will  it  be 
Before  I  shall  be  free 
And  not  fear  friend  or  foe? 
If  I  somewhere  could  go 
And  I  some  folks  could  know, 
I'd  not  want  to  'be  of  age' 
But  remain  in  my  cage." 

In  the  last  winter  of  her  free  life  we  find  her  still  singing  of 
"captivity  "  in  a  dainty  bit  of  verse  addressed  to  a  snowbird: 

' '  Dear  little  bird  with  glancing  wing, 
Did  you  but  know  I  long  to  fly, 


30  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Perhaps  you'd  sit  quite  near  and  sing 
To  me  in  my  captivity. 

"  Dear  human  heart  be  not  afraid, 

Thy  need  of  food,  thy  dream  of  flight 
He  knows,  by  whom  the  worlds  were  made; 
To  speed  thee  on  is  His  delight." 

They  were  kind  to  ' '  every  harmless  living  creature, "  those 
' '  out-doorsy  "  little  people;  as  the  same  journal  tells  us: 

One  day  when  we  girls  were  having  our  good  times  down  by  the  river  the 
three  Hodge  boys  came  along  hunting  for  birds'  nests.  ' '  But  you  mustn'  t  carry 
any  away,"  said  Mary,  greatly  stirred;  "You  may  climb  the  trees  and  look,  if 
you  want  to  see  the  eggs  or  little  ones,  but  you  can' t  hurt  a  birdie,  big  or  little, 
in  our  pasture. ' '  The  boys  said  their  mother  told  them  the  same  thing  and  they 
only  wanted  to  look.  So  Mary  and  I  showed  them  under  the  leafy  covert  some 
of  the  brown  thrushes  housekeeping,  and  the  robins,  too,  and  told  them  they 
were  nice,  kind  boys. 

Brotherhood  and  sisterhood  meant  much  in  the  Willard  house- 
hold. The  liveliest  stories  are  told  about  the  comradeship  of 
Frances  and  Oliver.  They  were  up  to  no  end  of  jolly  times 
together.  If  he  liked  better  to  play  "Fort,"  and  she  to  play 
' '  City, "  that  was  no  reason  they  should  be  divided  in  their  play. 
She  played  ' '  Fort "  with  him,  entering  into  his  imagination  of  it 
with  cordiality  and  swing,  and  played  it  gloriously.  He  played 
' '  City  "  with  her,  assisting  her  ' '  in  consideration  of  the  resources 
of  the  corporation."  Brother  and  sister  thus  mutually  annexed 
each  other's  land,  and  became  richer  by  the  resources  in  liking  and 
faculty  of  both. 

"A  boy  whose  sister  knows  everything  he  does  will  be  far 
more  modest,  genial  and  pleasant  to  have  about,"  Frances  once 
said;  then,  smiling  quietly,  she  added,  "and  it  will  be  a  great 
improvement  to  the  sister  alsor"  I  believe  she  regarded  this  com- 
merce between  the  lands  of  brother  and  sister,  of  man  and  woman; 
the  association,  not  of  bodily  presence  only,  such  as  takes  place 
around  every  breakfast  table,  but  a  true  association  of  minds; 
this*  unselfish  and  unstinted  entrance  of  one  nature  into  the  feeling, 


CHILDHOOD  31 

thought  and  activity  of  another  for  a  little  space,  like  a  journey 
into  a  neighboring  country,  from  which  a  wise  traveler  comes  back 
laden  with  riches  for  his  own  —  all  this  I  believe  she  regarded 
soberly  as  a  "  wider  education  "  for  women.  It  was  certainly  one 
of  the  powerful  and  enlarging  influences  which  made  Frances 
Willard  a  great  woman. 

Brother  and  sister,  father  and  daughter,  friend  and  friend  — 
all  her  life  long  this  woman's  heart  and  mind  was  going  out  toward 
the  labors,  the  thoughts,  the  aims  of  men,  with  hearty  sympathy, 
quick  intelligence,  large  helpfulness.  She  was  great  enough  to  see 
clearly  and  proclaim  firmly  that  fundamental  truth,  that  it  takes 
both  a  man-angel  and  a  woman-angel  to  make  the  heavenly  human 
in  God's  sight.  This  beautiful  and  helpful  association  of  brother 
and  sister,  beginning  as  merrily  and  sweetly  as  that  of  George 
Eliot  and  her  brother  in  early  years,  did  not  cease  with  those 
years,  but  continued  as  long  as  both  lived,  a  wholesome,  uplifting 
friendship,  full  of  grace  and  strength. 

Yet  all  these  after-riches  and  fullness  and  power  of  life  were 
folded  away  in  those  beginnings,  so  heavenly  simple  and  true.  In 
those  years,  when  through  home  and  the  fair  country  around, 
father  and  mother,  brother  and  sister,  and  God's  Fatherhood  over 
all,  ministered  to  the  child,  there  was  implanted  and  nourished  in 
her  the  ' '  sweet  skill "  of  loving  much,  of  trust  and  truth,  obedience 
and  endeavor.  It  is  a  fascinating  study  to  see  how  in  that  early 
day  many  of  our  leader's  after-greatnesses  put  forth  their  first 
leaves.  She  was  a  born  organizer,  which  only  means  she  was 
magnificently  a  woman,  for  woman  is  the  born  organizer  of  crea- 
tion. She  early  discovered  the  ' '  usefulness  of  association, "  and  in 
numerous  preambles  drawn  up  when  she  could  scarcely  write 
"straight"  she  called  attention  to  it.  In  the  self-derived  charter 
of  "Fort  City"  we  find  announced:  "We  will  have  no  saloons  or 
billiard  halls,  and  then  we  will  not  need  any  jails"-— a  somewhat 
rash  and  girlish  generalization,  for  the  devil  can  sow  tares  in 
human  nature,  even  though  whisky-soaked  ground  should  fail  him. 
It  looks  in  the  right  direction,  so  far  as  municipal  order  and  clean- 


32  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

liness  go,  for  there  is  scarcely  any  other  sin  so  much  of  a  nuisance 
to  the  neighbor  or  so  obviously  a  loss  to  the  country  as  is 
drunkenness. 

She  learned  to  read  from  "The  Slave's  Friend,"  thus  early 
imbibing  from  her  Abolition  parents  the  sentiments  that  swept 
through  her  soul  in  the  succeeding  years,  making  her  more  than 
any  other  modern  reformer  the  friend  of  the  negro  race,  and  giving 
birth  to  a  phrase  in  one  of  her  prophetic  mottoes :  ' '  No  sect  in 
religion,  no  sex  in  citizenship,  no  sectionalism  in  politics." 

The  children  early  signed  the  total  abstinence  pledge  inscribed 
in  the  old  family  Bible,  where  the  names  of  the  father  and  the 
mother  preceded  the  childish  autographs.  This  was  the  pledge, 
and  we  hope  that  many  a  child-reader  of  this  old-fashioned,  iron- 
clad promise  will  here  and  now  affix  his  name  to  the  same  noble 
resolution : 

"  A  pledge  we  make,  no  wine  to  take, 
Nor  brandy  red  that  turns  the  head, 
Nor  fiery  rum  that  ruins  home, 
Nor  whisky  hot  that  makes  the  sot, 
Nor  brewers'   beer,  for  that  we  fear, 
And  cider,  too,  will  never  do  ; 
To  quench  our  thirst  we'll  always  bring 
Cold  water  from  the  well  or  spring. 
So  here  we  pledge  perpetual  hate 
To  all  that  can  intoxicate." 

Fifty  years  after  Miss  Willard  had  signed  this  pledge,  she  com- 
posed one  especially  for  her  boy  friends,  which  I  here  transcribe  in 
sacred  memory  of  their  elder  sister's  love  and  prayerful  expectation 
for  the  boys  and  girls  of  this  and  future  generations: 

PLEDGE  FOR  BOYS. 

"  I  pledge  my  brain  God's  thoughts  to  think, 
My  lips  no  fire  or  foam  to  drink 
From  alcoholic  cup, 

Nor  link  with  my  pure  breath  tobacco's  taint 
For  have  I  not  a  right  to  be 


FIRST    M.    E.    CHURCH, 
MNESVILLE,  wis. 


CHILDHOOD  33 

As  wholesome,  pure  and  free  as  she 

Who  through  the  years  so  glad  and  free     . 

Moves  gently  onward  to  meet  me? 

A  knight  of  the  new  chivalry 

For  Christ  and  Temperance  I  would  be  — 

In  nineteen  hundred ;  come  and  see. ' ' 

The  home  Frances  Willard  was  to  find  in  millions  of  hearts 
was  wistfully  foreshadowed  when  she  stood  in  the  doorway  of  the 
old  -barn  at  Forest  Home  ' '  that  lonesome  day  in  early  spring. " 
She  tells  us  it  was  gray  with  fog  and  moist  with  rain.  It  was 
Sunday  and  there  was  no  church  to  attend,  and  the  time 
stretched  out  before  her  long  and  desolate.  ' '  She  cried  out  in 
querulous  tones  to  the  two  who  shared  her  every  thought,  '  I  won- 
'der  if  we  shall  ever  know  anything,  see  anybody  or  go  anywhere  ? ' 
'  Why  do  you  wish  to  go  away  ? '  said  sweet  little  Mary,  with  her 
reassuring  smile.  '  Oh,  we  must  learn  —  must  grow,  and  must 
achieve ;  it  is  such  a  big  world  that  if  we  don't  begin  at  it  we  shall 
never  catch  up  with"  the  rest. ' ' 

Dear  little  eagles  in  their  ' '  eagle's  nest, "  they  were  growing 
their  wings  for  future  flights  all  through  those  lovely  years.  The 
seed  of  the  -  after-harvest  of  mature  love  and  wisdom,  God  first 
sows  in  the  garden  plot  of  childhood  by  means  of  every  innocent 
activity  and  Relight,  every  simple  and  reverential  knowledge.  Our 
very  helplessness,  as  we  lie  in  the  arms  of  our  mothers,  brooded 
over  by  the  mother-angel  which  is  at  the  heart  of  every  true 
woman,  gives  the  Lord  and  the  angelic  host  their  first  way  with 
us.  And  the  long  period  of  our  ignorance  and  immaturity  fur- 
nishes only  so  much  more  time  to  shape  the  human  organism  dur- 
ing its  growth  to  a  wide  range  of  choice,  of  love,  of  understanding 
•land  activity. 

' '  It  was  a  beautiful  childhood, "  Miss  Willard  said,  sitting  on 
the  porch  in  the  twilight  one  quiet  evening,  watching  a  far  star 
across  the  lake ;  "  I  r  do  not  'know  how  it  could  have  been  more 
beautiful,  or  how  there  could  have  been  a  truer  beginning  of  many 
things.  To  me  it  has  often  seemed  as  if  those  earlier  years  were 

3 


34 


MEMORIAL,    VOLUME 


'  seed  to  all  my  after  good. ' '  A  little  later,  she  repeated  softly  to 
herself: 

"  'Long  years  have  left  their  writing  on  my  brow, 
But  yet  the  freshness  and  the  dew-fed  beam 
Of  those  young  mornings  are  about  me  now.' 

I  thank  Thee,  O  bountiful  God,  that  I  have  so  much  of  happiness, 
of  quiet  enjoyment  to  remember.  /  thank  Thee  that  I  have  not 
forgotten,  cannot  forget.  I  thank  Thee  that  wherever  I  may  dwell, 
no  place  can  be  so  dear,  so  completely  embalmed  in  my  heart, 
so  truly  the  best  beloved  of  all  to  me  as  '  Forest  Home. ' ' 


CHAPTER    III 

STUDENT    LIFE 

WHEN  Frances  Willard  was  fourteen,  her  father  and  a 
neighbor  bestirred  themselves  for  their  children's 
sake,  and  the  little  brown  schoolhouse  was  built  in  the 
wood,  about  a  mile  away.  It  was  the  simplest  of  district  school- 
houses,  plain  and  inviting,  Frances  says,  "a  bit  of  a  building 
under  the  trees  on  the  river  bank.  It  looked  like  a  natural  growth, 
a  sort  of  big  ground-nut.  The  pine  desks  were  ranged  around  the 
wall,  the  boys  on  one  side,  the  girls  on  the  other,  and  a  real  live 
graduate  from  Yale  was  teacher. "  ' '  There  will  be  lots  of  rules, " 
said  Oliver  to  his  sisters,  the  evening  before  their  first  real  school 
day  opened.  ' '  Never  mind, "  said  Frances,  ' '  It  will  be  a  pleasant 
change  to  have  some  rules  and  live  up  to  them. " 

In  this  school  the  sisters  had  ten  months  of  bright  inspiring 
instruction  keyed  to  high  ideals  for  heart  and  head.  We  can  hear 
the  ardent  child  Frances  leading  in  rich  contralto  tones  the  favorite 
song  with  which  they  made  "the  rafters  ring": 

' '  Now  to  heaven  our  prayer  ascending, 

God  speed  the  right ! 
In  a  noble  cause  contending, 
God  speed  the  right ! ' ' 

With  these  school  days  began  an  enlarged  social  outlook  for  the 
young  recluses  whose  home  playmates  heretofore  had  scarcely 
been  other  than  brother  and  sister,  father  and  mother.  The 
storing  and  unfolding  of  mind  was  continuous  and  an  unending 
series  of  beautiful  experiences  was  laid  away  for  future  considera- 
tion. In  addition  to  some  odd  volumes  of  travel  and  biography 

35 


36  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

the  books  they  had  thus  far  studied  were  the  Bible,  ' '  Pilgrim's 
Progress "  and  Shakespeare.  Shakespeare  was  a  ' '  most  wise 
instructor, "  and  certain  it  is  that  before  she  was  fifteen  the  eager 
girl  had  read,  reread  and  commented  upon  all  his  plays,  this  giving 
her  an  immense  advantage  when  she  entered  school. 

But  now  the  brother  at  college  came  into  his  library.  Great 
was  the  revelry  when  he  brought  home  the  Bohn  translation  of  the 
classics  —  Plato,  Epictetus,  Marcus  Aurelius,  ' '  Don  Quixote, " 
which  the  young  folks  read  aloud;  the  "Imitation  of  Christ," 
which  grew  dear  to  Frances'  heart,  and  many  other  treasures. 
The  vacations  became,  in  their  new  occupation  with  books,  scarcely 
less  stimulating  intellectually  than  were  the  school  days. 

In  Frances'  fifteenth  year,  after  a  trip  to  the  old  homestead  in 
the  East,  where  they  saw  their  father's  witty  old  mother  and  their 
mother's  father  powerful  in  prayer,  and  compared  views  on  sub- 
jects profound  and  simple  with  the  conservative  young  cousins,  the 
girls  Frances  and  Mary  attended  a  ' '  select  school "  in  Janesville, 
where  Frances  especially  enjoyed  Cutler's  physiology  and  awakened 
astonishment  by  the  way  she  edited  the  school  paper  when  it  came 
her  turn. 

A  great  gift  to  the  girls'  lives  was  a  summer  visit  in  the  home 
of  Southern  friends  who  had  driven  from  Georgia  to  Wisconsin  in 
their  own  carriage  for  the  sake  of  pleasure  and  health.  Owners 
and  teachers  of  a  ladies'  school  at  home,  elegant  and  cultured 
people,  it  was  the  greatest  event  thus  far  in  the  lives  of  these  forest 
nymphs  to  go  six  miles  from  home  to  spend  several  weeks  study- 
ing with  these  friends  in  their  rural  retreat,  and  for  the  first  time 
to  sleep  out  from  under  the  old  home  roof.  ' '  The  all-overish  feel- 
ing of  loneliness  "  was  conquered  by  the  thought  of  how  much  they 
should  know  when  the  separation  was  over,  and  they  were  soon 
devoted  to  their  gifted  teachers.  Here  Frances  made  her  first 
acquaintance  with  the  Bronte  novels  —  at  least  through  to  the 
middle  of  ' '  Villette. "  Her  father  coming  upon  her  with  it  in  her 
hands  shut  the  book  and  briefly  remarked  to  her  instructor, 
"Never  let  my  daughter  see  that  book  again,  if  you  please, 


STUDENT  LIFE  37 

Madam. "  The  daughter  religiously  respected  her  father's  prohibi- 
tion regarding  the  book,  and  as  years  passed  learned  how  much 
she  owed  to  ' '  the  firm  hand  that  held  her  impetuous  nature  from  a 
too  early  knowledge  of  the  unreal  world  of  romance." 

At  Forest  Home  Frances  won  her  first  spurs  as  a  writer.  The 
Prairie  Farmer  having  offered  a  prize  for  the  best  essay  on  the 
embellishment  of  a  country  home,  Mrs.  Willard,  who  forbade  her 
children  no  harmless  thing  along  the  line  of  their  impulses,  encour- 
aged her  daughter  to  compete ;  her  father  contributed  a  suggestion 
about  the  planting  of  evergreens,  and  the  fateful  manuscript  was 
dispatched.  Great  was  the  glee  when  in  return  for  the  effort  came 
a  beautiful  cup  and  a  note  of  congratulation. 

In  1857,  Frances  and  Mary  were  students  in  the  Milwaukee 
Female  College,  where  their  aunt,  Miss  Sarah  Hill  (Mrs.  Willard's 
youngest  sister)  was  Professor  of  History.  Frances,  then  seven- 
teen, found  in  this  aunt  her  greatest  intellectual  guide.  The  moral 
atmosphere  of  the  school  was  excellent;  there  was  the  finest  honor 
among  the  girls;  they  were  expected,  and  expected  themselves,  to 
be  ladies,  careful  scholars  and  obedient  to  the  rules.  Here  the 
young  girl  found  a  charming  circle  of  friends,  true  companions, 
with  whom  she  stood  in  the  heartiest,  healthiest,  most  helpful 
relation.  Here  she  found  also  the  beautiful  ' '  Marion, "  bright 
particular  star  of  those  years,  whom  she  so  loved  that  she  writes: 
' '  I  never  rested  until,  like  her,  I  also  heard  '  ten  —  ten, '  meaning 
perfect  in  conduct  and  scholarship,  read  out  after  my  name  each 
week."  As  McDonald  says,  "Love  loves  to  wear  the  livery  of  the 
beloved. " 

On  « '  Examination  Day  "  Frances  read  an  essay  on  ' '  Origi- 
nality of  Thought  and  Action, "  to  the  applause  of  the  audience, 
including  father  and  mother,  the  exercises  receiving  an  additional 
flavor  for  this  young  author  when  a  charming  poem  of  hers,  almost 
her  first  effort  in  that  line,  was  read  by  a  young  girl  friend,  and, 
writes  truthful  Frances,  ' '  I  was  downright  sorry  to  go  home. " 

The  speedy  popularity  of  the  Willard  girls  with  both  teachers 
and  pupils  rested  upon  no  less  sound  a  basis  than  what  they  were  in 

300845 


38  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

themselves  and  what  they  could  do.  Certainly  none  of  it  depended 
upon  the  possession  of  what  people  called  ' '  means. "  Absolutely 
all  the  spending  money  they  had  for  three  months  was  the  fifty 
cents  which  Irish  Mike,  the  farm  hand,  sent  the  two  girls  himself. 
After  careful  consultation,  Frances  invested  hers  in  a  ticket  to  the 
menagerie,  a  blank  book  to  write  essays  in,  and  peppermint  candy, 
which  list  of  expenditures  makes  us  love  her  for  the  unspoiled 
humanness  of  it.  It  was  this  same  Irish  Mike  who,  years  after, 
when  Miss  Willard  was  struggling  in  the  political  prohibition  arena, 
sent  word :  ' '  That  lady  and  her  folks  were  good  to  me  when  I  was 
a  green  boy  from  the  old  country,  and  now  the  lady  hasn't  a  vote 
to  bless  herself  with ;  but  me  and  my  boys  will  put  in  three  for  her. 
And  I  thought  I  would  write  and  tell  you.  Respect.  Mike  Carey. " 
The  little  blank  book  lies  on  the  table  before  me.  It  bears  a 
dashing  autograph  on  the  first  page,  and  above  it,  written  by  that 
rememberful  hand  many  years  later,  is  this  explanatory  note: 
' '  Mike  Carey  sent  Mary  and  me  fifty  cents  between  us  when  we 
were  pupils  at  Milwaukee,  and  out  of  mine  this  book  was  bought  — 
all  the  money  of  that  sort  we  had  in  the  three  months'  term. " 

Frances  celebrated  the  arrival  of  her  eighteenth  birthday  by 
writing  the  following: 

' '  I  am  eighteen. 

I  have  been  obedient. 

Not  that  the  yoke  was  heavy  to  be  borne, 
For  lighter  ne'er  did  parents  fond 

Impose  on  child. 

It  was  a  silver  chain, 

But  the  bright  adjective 
Takes  not  away  the  clanking  sound  ! 

The  clock  has  struck  ! 
I'm  free  !    Come  joy  profound  ! 

I'm  alone  and  free  — 

Free  to  obey  Jehovah  only, 
Accountable  but  to  the  powers  above!" 

Then  she  took  Ivanhoe,  seated  herself  on  the  porch  and  began 
to  read  with  calm  satisfaction.     Her  father  chanced  up  the  steps. 


39 

' '  What  have  you  there  ?  "  "  One  of  Scott's  novels. "  ' '  Have  I 
not  forbidden  you  to  read  any  novels?  "  "  You  forget  what  day  it 
is,  father. "  ' '  What  difference  does  the  day  make  in  the  deed  ?  " 
'  'A  great  deal.  I  am  eighteen  today,  and  I  do  not  have  to  obey 
any  laws  but  those  of  God  hereafter.  In  my  judgment,  Ivanhoe  is 
good  to  be  read."  The  amazed  father  was  for  half  an  instant 
minded  to  take  away  the  book  by  force.  Then  he  laughed,  called 
her  mother,  and  the  two  contemplated  this  woman-child  of  theirs. 
At  length  he  said,  seriously:  "She  is  evidently  a  chip  of  the 
Puritan  block. "  That  was  an  old-fashioned  Protestant  declaration 
of  independence.  ' '  Well,  we  will  try  to  learn  God's  laws  and  obey 
them  together,  my  child. " 

The  two  sisters  had  been  looking  forward  to  further  study  in 
Milwaukee,  but  their  Methodist  father  desired  a  more  strictly 
sectarian  school  for  his  children,  and  selected  the  Northwestern 
Female  College  at  Evanston,  Illinois,  where,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  spring  term  in  1858,  when  Frances  was  in  her  nineteenth  year, 
they  entered  as  pupils.  At  Evanston,  as  at  Milwaukee,  ' '  Frank  " 
(as  she  was  always  called)  was  soon  an  acknowledged  leader  in 
scholarship  and  school  activities.  But  at  Evanston  the  girls  were 
smiled  at  for  the  first  time  because  of  their  simple  dress,  this  giv- 
ing occasion  to  the  last  overt  manifestation  of  Frank's  fighting 
powers  in  the  incident  which  still  lives  in  Evanston  tradition. 
Their  father  always  had  the  whim  of  giving  his  personal  care  to 
the  purchase  of  his  daughters'  wardrobe,  taking  counsel  only  of  his 
own  taste.  So  he  sent  the  girls  a  couple  of  red  worsted  hoods  for 
'their  winter  wear.  Now,  a  red  worsted  hood  might  be  charming 
on  the  head  of  Mary,  but  to  Frances  it  was  far  from  becoming. 
She  hated  it  with  a  "hatred  and  a  half,"  she  says,  and  the  girls 
guyed  her  unmercifully  about  the  plain  homespun  thing.  One  of 
them,  a  tall,  handsome  creature,  guyed  her  once  too  often  as  she 
was  putting  it  on.  Frank  turned  on  her,  threw  her  down,  crumpled 
her  up  under  a  desk,  and  walked  off  defiantly  tying  the  strings  of 
that  despised  hood.  Hood  or  no  hood,  there  was  no  discounting 
the  position  she  soon  acquired  in  school.  She  was  a  power,  rejoic- 


4o  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

ing  in  nothing  so  much  as  taking  the  initiative.  A  reckless  spirit 
full  of  adventure,  does  some  one  say?  This  was  not  true.  The 
great  woman  to  be  was  just  now  coming  into  a  great  girlhood,  and 
girlhood  in  a  time  of  ferment.  Only  in  the  light  of  the  woman  she 
was  to  be  and  the  work  she  was  to  do  can  we  justly  estimate  the 
passing  phases  of  that  preparatory  growth  under  God's  providence 
and  His  guiding  will.  It  was  a  great  nature  unfolding  itself,  find- 
ing and  testing  its  own  powers.  A  strong  will,  full  both  of  audaci- 
ties and  self-controls,  yet  with  such  a  beautiful  habit  of  confidence 
toward  her  mother  that  she  says,  ' '  I  could  scarcely  tell  where  her 
thought  ended  and  mine  began." 

In  spite  of  the  revelations  of  her  all-producing  journal  during 
her  student  life,  Frances  Willard  as  a  young  woman  must  have 
possessed  a  rare  and  exquisite  beauty.  One  who  first  met  her  at 
the  Evanston  College  writes :  ' '  My  interest  was  excited  by  the 
golden-haired  young  woman,  Frank  Willard.  I  saw  she  was 
younger  than  any  of  the  women  about  her  and  then  looked  far 
younger  than  she  was.  I  was  attracted  by  her  apparent  youth 
and  by  the  vivid  expression  of  her  absorbed  and  attentive  face." 
Speaking  forty  years  later,  this  friend  says  of  her:  "The  same 
vivid  indescribable  light  was  in  her  face,  grown  more  delicate 
and  illusive;  it  was  as  if  all  the  years  had  subtly  refined  and 
enriched  that  precious  and  fragrant  substance,  the  oil  of  the  life 
lamp." 

Sundry  notes  in  Miss  Willard's  journal  during  her  college  days 
are  significant  of  the  girl's  self.      "Dr.  Foster  closed  the  Bible, 
after  his  discourse  at  the  University  chapel  yesterday  with  these 
words:   'Brothers,  with  most  men  life  is  a  failure.'     The  words 
impressed  me  deeply;  there  is  sorrow  in  the  thought,  tears  and 
agony  are  wrapped  up  in  it.     O  Thou  who  rulest  above,  help  me 
that  my  life  may  be  valuable,  that  some  human  being  shall  yet 
thank  Thee  that  I  have  lived  and  toiled!'     ...    ..      ."     Of  the 

hero  of  a  book  she  remarks:  "He  is  a  noble  character  but  he 
weeps  too  much,  and  I  do  not  like  his  ideas  about  a  wife  obeying 
her  husband  —  that  I  scout  wherever  I  see  it. "  In  those  days  she 


STUDENT  LIFE  41 

often  had  almost  a  cramp  of  self-consciousness  in  company  at  all 
strange  to  her,  or  under  unaccustomed  conditions,  and  in  her 
journal  likens  herself  to  Charles  Lamb,  who,  outside  his  immediate 
circle  was  not  himself,  neither  natural  nor  at  ease.  ' '  Perhaps, " 
she  says,  ' '  that  is  why  I  like  books  so  much ;  they  never  frighten 
me.  However, "  she  continues,  addressing  herself,  ' '  as  you  have 
begun  to  think  much  on  this  subject,  probably  by  and  by  your 
manner  will  assume  of  itself  that  half-cordial,  half-dignified  char- 
acter that  accords  best  with  your  nature. " 

Her  ambitions  grew  definite:  "  I  thought  that,  next  to  a  wish 
I  had  to  be  a  saint  some  day,  I  really  would  like  to  be  a  politician. " 

' '  Professor  detained  me  after  devotions  this  morning,  and 
with  his  most  '  engaging '  smile  made  this  announcement :  '  By 
vote  of  your  teachers  you  are  appointed  valedictorian.'  I  was 
glad,  of  course;  'tis  like  human  nature.  To  others  it  will  seem  a 
small  thing;  it  is  not  so  to  me." 

' '  I  am  more  interested  in  the  '  Memoirs  of  Margaret  Fuller 
Ossoli, '  than  in  any  other  book  I  have  read  for  years.  Here  we 
see  what  a  woman  achieved  for  herself.  Not  so  much  fame  or 
honor,  these  are  of  minor  importance,  but  a  whole  character,  a 
cultivated  intellect,  right  judgment,  self-knowledge,  self-happi- 
ness. If  she,  why  not  we,  by  steady  toil  ?  " 

' '  Everything  humbles  me,  but  two  things  in  the  highest 
degree.  One  is  to  stand  in  a  large  library,  the  other  to  study 
astronomy.  In  both  cases  I  not  only  see  how  much  there  is  to  be 
known,  how  insignificant  my  knowledge  is,  but  I  see  how  atomic  I 
am,  compared  with  other  human  beings.  Astronomers  '  think 
God's  thoughts  after  him. '  Alas,  I  can  hardly  think  their  thoughts 
after  them,  when  all  is  clearly  represented!  " 

Mrs.  Mary  Bannister  Willard,  her  closest  heart-friend  among 
college  mates  and  later  her  beloved  sister-in-law,  paints  this  charm- 
ing picture  of  Miss  Willard's  wit  and  wisdom  during  her  schoolgirl 


42  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

days:  "None  of  the  pupils  who  attended  the  Northwestern  Female 
College  in  the  spring  term  of  1858  will  fail  to  recall  the  impressions 
made  by  two  young  girls  from  Wisconsin  on  their  entrance  upon 
this  new  school  life.  Mary,  with  her  sweet,  delicate  face,  winning, 
almost  confidential  manner,  and  earnest,  honest  purpose,  con- 
quered the  hearts  of  teachers  and  pupils  at  once.  Schoolgirls  are 
a  conservative  body,  reserving  favorable  judgment  till  beauty, 
kindliness  or  fine  scholarship  compels  their  admiration.  Frances 
was  at  first  thought  proud,  haughty,  independent — :all  cardinal 
sins  in  schoolgirl  codes.  The  shyness  or  timidity  which  she  con- 
cealed only  too  successfully  under  a  mask  of  indifference  gave  the 
impression  that  she  really  wished  to  stand  aloof  from  her  mates. 
When  it  came  to  recitations,  however,  all  shyness  and  apparent 
indifference  melted  away.  The  enthusiasm  for  knowledge  and 
excellence  shone  from  the  young  girl's  face  on  all  these  occasions. 
After  «  class '  her  schoolmates  gathered  in  groups  in  corridor  and 
chapel,  and  discussed  her  perforce  favorably.  '  My !  can't  she 
recite  ?  Look  out  for  your  laurels  now,  Kate ! '  '  The  new  girl 
beats  us  all, ' —  these  were  the  ejaculations  that  testified  of  honest 
schoolgirl  opinion,  and  prophesied  her  speedy  and  sure  success. 
It  was  but  a  few  weeks  till  she  wa's  editor  of  the  College  paper, 
and  leader  of  all  the  intellectual  forces  among  the  students.  She 
was  in  no  sense,  however,  an  intellectual  '  prig. '  None  of  us  was 
more  given  over  to  a  safe  kind  of  fun  and  frolic;  she  was  an  inven- 
tor of  sport,  and  her  ingenuity  devised  many  an  amusement  which 
was  not  all  amusement,  but  which  involved  considerable  exercise  of 
wit  and  intelligence  —  and  our  beloved  'Professor'  (William  P. 
Jones)  soon  found  that  he  could  always  rely  upon  her  influence  in 
the  school  to  counteract  the  tendency  to  silly  escapades  and  moon- 
light walks  with  the  '  University  boys. '  A  young  man  would  have 
been  temerity  itself  who  would  have  suggested  such  a  thing  to  her. 
In  fact,  she  came  to  be  something  of  a  '  beau '  herself  —  a  certain 
dashing  recklessness  about  her  having  as  much  fascination  for  the 
average  schoolgirl  as  if  she  had  been  a  senior  in  the  University, 
instead  of  the  carefully  dressed,  neatly  gloved  young  lady  who 


STUDENT  LIFE  43 

took  the  highest  credit  marks  in  recitation,  but  was  known  in  the 
privacy  of  one  or  two  of  the  girls'  rooms  to  assume  the  '  airs '  of  a 
bandit,  flourish  an  imaginary  sword,  and  converse  in  a  daring, 
slashing  way  supposed  to  be  known  only  among  pirates  with  their 
fellows. 

' '  Study  did  not  end  with  the  abandonment  of  the  classroom, 
but,  as  she  had  planned,  went  on  in  new  forms,  and  with  the  intent 
and  intensity  of  original  research.  Her  schoolmates  when  they 
visited  her  in  her  quiet  little  room,  with  its  bright  south  and  east 
windows  brimming  the  cosy  nook  with  warm  sunshine,  found  her 
always  at  her  desk  with  books,  paper  and  pen,  for  with  her  inde- 
pendent mind,  the  thoughts  and  investigations  of  others  were  not 
properly  her  own  until  she  had  fixed  them  in  the  mold  of  personal 
judgment,  and  phrased  them  in  the  forceful  language  of  her  own 
opinions. 

' '  While  society,  or  the  superficial  intercourse  known  by  this 
name,  had  little  charm  for  this  studious  young  woman,  whose  keen 
spirit  soon  pierced  its  disguises  and  rated  it  at  its  real  value,  to  her 
journal  she  philosophized  about  it  in  this  wise: 

"  As  I  gain  in  experience,  I  see  more  and  more  distinctly  that  a  young 
lady  must  have  accomplishments  to  be  of  value  in  society.  That  august  tyrant 
asks  every  candidate  for  preferment  in  its  ranks  :  '  What  can  you  do  for  me? 
Can  you  tell  me  a  story,  make  me  a  joke  or  sing  me  a  song?  I  am  to  be 
amused  ! '  Society  is  not  for  scholarly  discipline.  Study  is  for  private  life. 
Benefactions,  loves,  hates,  emoluments,  business  —  all  these  go  on  behind  the 
scenes.  Men  grow  learned,  and  good,  and  great  otherwhere  than  in  society. 
They  ponder,  and  delve,  and  discover  in  secret  places.  Women  suffer  and  grow 
uncomplaining  in  toil  and  sacrifice,  and  learn  that  life's  grandest  lesson  is  summed 
up  in  four  simple  words — '  Let  us  be  patient ' —  in  the  nooks  and  corners  of  the 
earth.  Into  society  they  may  bring  not  their  labors  but  the  fruit  of  their  labors. 
Public  opinion,  which  is  the  mouthpiece  of  society,  asks  not  of  any  man  :  '  When 
did  you  do  this,  where  did  you  accomplish  it  ?  '  but,  '  What  have  you  done  ?  we 
do  not  care  for  the  process,  give  us  the  results. ' 

' '  Society  is  to  everyday  life  what  recess  is  to  the  schoolboy.  "If  it  has 
been  crowded  from  this,  its  right  relation,  then  it  is  for  every  right-thinking 
member  to  aid  in  the  restoration  to  its  true  position.  Let  no  cynical  philosopher 
inveigh  against  society.  Let  none  say  its  fruits  are  simply  heartlessness  and 


44  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

hypocrisy.  Man  is  a  creature  of  habits;  when  among  his  fellows,  he  does  his 
best  studiously  at  first,  unthinkingly  afterward.  I  will  venture  to  assert  that  the 
man  who  was  greater  than  any  other  who  walked  the  earth  was  the  kindest,  the 
best  bred,  the  most  polite.  Society  is  not  an  incidental,  unimportant  affair;  it  is 
the  outward  sign  of  an  inward  grace.  Let  us,  then,  if  we  can,  be  graceful;  cul- 
tivate conversational  ability,  musical  talent  ;  improve  our  manners  —  and  our 
beauty,  if  we  are  blessed  with  it.  Harmonious  sounds  cheer  the  heart.  Fitness 
is  admirable.  All  these  are  means  of  happiness  to  us  who  have  sorrow  enough 
at  best.  It  is  no  light  thing  to  perform  the  duties  we  owe  to  society,  and  it  is 
better  to  approximate  than  to  ignore  them. ' ' 

"Scattered  all  along  through  this  year  the  journal  shows  many 
a  deep  longing  for  the  best  and  most  symmetrical  of  all  lives  — 
that  of  the  Christian. 

"In  the  vacation  summer  of  1858,  on  returning  from  Evans- 
ton,  Frances  took  possession  of  the  little  schoolhouse  near  Forest 
Home,  and  for  six  weeks  carried  on  the  school  herself,  with  great 
comfort  and  pleasure.  Early  in  the  autumn  the  Willard  family 
removed  to  Evanston.  Tenants  were  placed  in  charge  of  their 
beloved  Forest  Home,  and  '  Swampscott '  became  their  residence — 
a  pleasant  place  near  the  lake,  the  large  grounds  of  which  were 
Mr.  Willard's  pride  and  pleasure,  as  he  saw  them,  under  his  skillful 
management,  growing  constantly  more  beautiful.  Nearly  every 
tree  and  vine  was  set  with  his  own  hands,  often  assisted  by  Frank, 
and  all  were  imported  from  Forest  Home. 

' '  The  life  of  the  home  was  a  very  bright  and  merry  one  at 
this  time,  for  the  three  children  were  all  together,  all  earnestly  at 
work,  but  all  as  uniquely  bent  on  enjoyment  as  ever  they  had  been 
in  the  old  delightful  days  of  Forest  Home.  Oliver  having  finished 
his  college  studies,  was  preparing  for  the  ministry;  Mary  was  joy- 
fully nearing  her  own  graduation  day  —  full  of  enthusiasm  for 
knowledge,  for  happiness,  for  all  the  real  values  of  life.  Frances 
alone  at  home,  deep  in  a  young  girl's  philosophy  of  existence,  was 
nevertheless  as  fond  of  a  romp,  a  joke  and  a  good  time,  as  any  girl 
today  of  the  particular  fun  and  frolic  that  young  people  nowadays 
engage  in.  Deeply  envious  of  the  brothers  and  friends  who  were 


STUDENT  LIFE  45 

so  fond  of  their  college  fraternity,  and  so  tantalizing  with  their  half- 
displayed  secrets,  the  girls  of  1859  and  1860,  an  exceptionally 
bright  and  clever  company,  organized  a  secret  society  of  their  own, 
in  which  Frances  and  Mary  were  among  the  deepest  plotters. 
Since  Greek  letters  were  in  order,  ours  was  the  Iota  Omega  frater- 
nity, or  sorority;  dark  and  dreadful  were  its  ceremonies,  grave  and 
momentous  its  secrets.  It  was  not  allowed  to  degenerate,  how- 
ever, into  anything  worse  than  autograph  hunting,  and  even  in 
these  early  days  of  that  nuisance,  we  received  some  sharp  repri- 
mands for  our  importunity.  Horace  Greeley  particularly  berated  us 
in  a  long  letter,  which,  fortunately,  we  could  not  entirely  decipher, 
and  which  was  so  wretchedly  illegible  that  we  could  exhibit  it  to 
envious  Sigma  Chi  brothers  without  fear  of  taunt  or  ridicule. 
Abraham  Lincoln  gave  his  friendly  '  sign  manual, '  Longfellow  wrote 
out  a  verse  of  '  Excelsior '  for  the  collection,  but  Queen  Victoria, 
alas!  to  whom  we  had  applied  in  a  letter  addressed, 

'  Victoria, 

Buckingham  Palace, 
London, 

England,  The  World,' 
never  deigned  us  a  reply. 

' '  We  had  a  department  of  '  Notes  and  Queries '  also,  that  was 
given  to  Frank's  especial  charge,  and  she  was  never  more  herself 
than  when  setting  all  of  us  at  work  with  slender  clues  upon  the 
hunt  for  some  valuable  bits  of  information  more  than  she  or  we 
knew  at  the  time.  She  was  our  instructor  and  leader. " 


Taking  Miss  Willard's  student  life  all  in  all,  we  find  her  brave 
and  modest,  merry  and  wise,  winsome,  gentle,  generous  and  good, 
gracious  in  her  dignity,  dainty  in  attire,  superb  in  her  friendliness, 
remarkable  in  scholarship  and  valedictorian  of  her  class. 

The  school  days,  she  has  told  us,  were  a  blessed  time,  full  of 
happiness  and  aspiration,  having  in  them  the  charm  of  success  and 
the  witchery  of  friendship,  deepening  in  her  heart  the  love  of 
humanity  and  exalting  her  spirit  to  the  worship  of  God. 


CHAPTER   IV 

RELIGIOUS    DEVELOPMENT 

S  a  lisping  child  the  little  Frances  learned  the  mighty  first 
chapter  of  St.  John's  Gospel  from  her  mother's  lips.     It 
was  the  first  lesson  she  ever  learned  by  heart.     Then 
came  the  rocking-chair  lullaby  in  her  father's  deep  tones : 

' '  A  charge  to  keep  I  have, 

A  God  to  glorify, 
A  never-dying  soul  to  save 
And  fit  it  for  the  sky. 

"To  serve  the  present  age, 

My  calling  to  fulfill, 
Oh,  may  it  all  my  powers  engage 
To  do  my  Master's  will." 

A  prophetic  hymn  —  this  first  one  ever  taught  the  young 
warrior  soul,  whose  "charge"  and  whose  "calling"  far  outran  the 
boundary  of  her  father's  conserving  thought.  Then  followed  the 
old  Bible  stories  delightful  to  a  child,  yet  stored  with  the  sacred 
history  of  the  soul.  Somewhat  later,  ' '  Pilgrim's  Progress  "  became 
the  vade  mecum  and  ' '  Greatheart "  her  chosen  knight. 

The  Forest  Home  trio  were  early  trained  to  ' '  deeds  of  week- 
day holiness, "  but  Sundays  were  ideal  days  of  praise  and  aspira- 
tion. How  they  loved  the  drives  to  church  in  the  democrat  wagon, 
or  when  there  was  no  service  to  which  they  could  go,  how  humanly 
sweet,  simple  and  sacred  the  Sabbath  of  the  home  was  made.  In 
the  morning  the  stately  father  walked  to  the  riverside  among  the 
sentinel  trees,  his  little  girls  stepping  proudly  beside  him,  and  his 
grave  voice  carrying  to  their  young  minds  and  hearts  the  vibrations 


RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT  47 

of  the  great  and  devout  thoughts  of  the  race.  In  the  afternoon,  as 
Miss  Willard's  hallowed  memory  pictures  it  to  us,  there  were  walks 
with  mother|  when  she  clipped  a  sprig  of  caraway  or  fennel  for  the 
girls  or  a  bunch  of  sweet-smelling  pinks  for  Oliver  from  the  pretty 
little  beds  in  the  heart  of  the  orchard,  where  no  one  was  privileged 
to  go  except  with  mother.  ' '  Here  she  talked  to  us  of  God's  great 
beauty  in  the  thoughts  He  works  out  for  us;  she  taught  us  tender- 
ness toward  every  little  sweet-faced  flower  and  piping  bird;  she 
showed  us  the  shapes  of  clouds  and  what  resemblances  they  bore 
to  things  upon  the  earth;  she  made  us  love  the  Heart  that  is  at 
Nature's  heart.  When  one  of  us  was  afraid  of  the  dark  and  came 
to  mother  with  the  question  '  Why, '  she  replied,  '  Because  you 
do  not  know  and  trust  God  enough  yet;  just  once  get  it  into  your 
heart  as  well  as  your  head  that  the  world  lies  in  God's  arms  like  a 
babe  on  its  mother's  breast,  and  you  will  never  be  afraid  of 
anything. ' ' 

A  loving  aunt,  long  years  a  teacher,  visited  the  home,  and 
leading  the  children  out  under  the  far-off  stars  at  night,  made 
them  forevermore  familiar  with  the  flaming  belt  of  Orion  and  the 
clustering  Pleiades,  quoting  reverently  lofty  passages  from  the 
Bible  about  the  starry  heavens;  while  Frances,  looking  upward 
from  the  vantage  ground  of  the  wide  prairie,  would  repeat,  almost 
with  tears,  the  lines  from  Addison  taught  her  by  her  mother: 

' '  The  spacious  firmament  on  high 
And  all  the  blue  ethereal  sky, 
With  spangled  heavens,  a  shining  frame, 
Their  Great  Original  proclaim  ; 
The  unwearied  sun,  from  day  to  day 
Doth  his  Creator's  power  display, 
And  publishes  to  every  land 
The  work  of  an  Almighty  hand." 

' '  Oh,  sacred  Sabbaths  of  our  childhood !  Oh,  early  mornings 
in  the  spring,  when  we  ran  together  through  the  dewy  grass  or  laid 
our  ears  to  the  brown  bosom  of  the  earth  to  hear  her  vibrant 
breathing,  to  thrill  at  her  pulsing  heart!  Oh,  birds  that  sang  for 


48  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

me,  and  flowers  that  bloomed,  and  mother-love  that  brooded  and 
father-love  that  held!  And  God's  sky  over  all,  and  Himself  near 
unto  us  everywhere;  yea,  nearer  than  near!  Surely  heavenly 
and  without  end  are  the  blessings  of  the  Lord  to  children!  Verily, 
His  goodness  and  His  mercy  are  with  us  all  our  days."  So  sang 
the  heart  of  Frances  Willard  in  its  ripe  womanhood  when  moved 
by  the  recurring  touch  of  those  years. 

Miss  Willard's  enjoyment  of  the  Sunday  twilight  hour  of  song 
dated  back  to  Forest  Home  when  "Guide  me,  O  Thou  Great 
Jehovah,"  or  Kirke  White's  "Star  of  Bethlehem"  used  to  melt 
the  heart  of  the  child,  even  then  conscious  of  the  struggle  between 
natural  resistance  to  religious  influence  and  the  love  that  yields 
itself  in  submission  to  God. 

If  she  was  slow  in  growing  to  the  simplicities  of  adult  woman- 
hood, when  heart,  mind  and  life  are  all  in  harmony,  she  grew 
toward  them  continually,  the  fact  of  her  being  the  powerful  and 
effective  woman  that  she  was  proving  this,  although  perhaps  she 
could  not  have  been  this  publicly  effective  woman  without  her 
positive  turbulent  temper.  ' '  If  I  stubbed  my  toe  against  any- 
thing it  was  prompt  instinct  within  me  to  turn  again  and  rend  that 
thing. "  "  If  I  remember  rightly, "  she  said,  ' '  our  ancient  brother 
Xerxes  furnished . several  entertaining  incidents  to  history."  But 
even  in  her  warlike  moods  she  was  like  a  wholesome  spring  day. 
Its  breeze  may  get  things  disarranged  a  trifle,  but  there  is  plenty 
of  oxygen. 

As  the  first  flame  of  youth  began  to  kindle  in  the  cheeks  and 
eyes  of  this  reticent  yet  ambitious  girl,  she  coveted  such  wealth 
of  beauty  as  she  saw  in  other  faces  and  wept  with  discontent  at 
what  she  considered  her  own  modest  competence  of  loveliness. 
Her  mother  tenderly  comforted  her  in  motherfashion,  but  added: 
' '  Grandfather  Hill  was  the  noblest  looking  man  I  ever  saw,  and 
you  are  very  like  him,  my  dear. "  Thereupon  the  active  little  girl 
instantly  resolved  to  be  very  ' '  noble  looking, "  and  that  she  might 
be  quite  complete  and  admirable,  resolved  to  be  very  noble  feeling 
also,  a  resolution  she  certainly  lived  up  to,  although  not  until  the 


KATE  JACKSON 


MY   FOUR. 


RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT  49 

impulse  from  which   it  sprang  was  tempered   by  many  years  of 
God's  grace. 

' '  I  am  afraid  it  almost  turned  a  rather  innocent  outward 
vanity  into  an  inward  pride,  much  more  difficult  to  get  rid  of, "  she 
afterward  said.  '  'As  for  my  brother's  kindly  speech,  '  Never  mind, 
Frank,  if  you  are  not  the  handsomest  girl  in  school,  you  are  the 
smartest,'  I  nearly  made  a  prig  of  myself  over  it,  because  as 
'  Watson's  '  Dr.  Johnson  would  say,  '  I  was  not  without  a  modest 
consciousness  that  it  was  true.'  It  was  the  old  story  of  the  rag 
doll  over  again.  '  She's  a  rag  doll  —  only  she's  good,  and  not 
proud  like  a  wax  doll. '  And  it  makes  me  laugh  even  now  to  think 
how  simply  and  naturally  in  all  our  play  '  organizations '  the  chief 
incentive,  reward  and  honor  of  the  leading  officer's  position  was  a 
right  to  have  the  '  say  so. ' ' 

It  made  one  smile  tenderly  sometimes  to  note  the  way  in 
which,  in  quiet  hours,  she  was  inclined  to  deplore,  as  a  half -sin, 
all  this  development  of  the  ' '  selfhood, "  which  yet  gives  edge, 
strength,  practical  force  to  all  our  abilities  in  this  wicked  and  work- 
aday world. 

How  blessed  she  was  in  her  mother-confidant,  that  wise 
woman  who  knew  that  the  storm  and  stress  period  of  youth  is 
normally  inevitable,  that  the  natural  will  must  get  its  natural 
growth  and  training  before  there  is  any  truly  individual  will  to  be 
submitted  to  God  or  bend  its  force  to  God's  service.  She  was  not 
a  woman  of  fears.  If  she  had  any  she  did  not  tell  her  daughter. 
She  only  told  the  Lord,  knowing  He  was  in  the  heart  of  her  child, 
to  will  and  to  do  of  His  good  pleasure  even  as  He  is  at  the  heart 
of  His  universe. 

A  passage  from  Miss  Willard's  journal  when  a  teacher  at 
twenty-four  reveals  the  questioning  soul  seeking  after  the  truth 
of  an  eternal  existence. 

' '  Two  letters  have  been  received  from  two  poet-souled  women 
in  obscure  life,  and  for  the  time  they  have  transfigured  me.  Full 
of  insigh:  they  were,  for  these  women  love  much  and  read  the  sig- 
nificance of  destiny  by  clear  burning  tapers  lighted  at  the  altar  of 


5o  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

consecration  to  their  homes.  I  have  read  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion and  Charlotte  Corday,  and  the  Unknown  and  Invisible  has 
risen  before  me,  misty  and  dark,  as  I  wonder  what  vision  burst  on 
the  freed  soul  of  that  marvelous  girl  as  she  lay  on  the  plank  of  the 
scaffold  and  '  the  beam  dropped,  the  blade  glided,  the  head  fell. ' 
I  have  listened  to  the  Bible  reading  at  our  quiet  chapel  prayers, 
and  have  pondered  much  over  Job's  words,  '  Why  should  a  man 
contend  against  God?  '  and  as  I  thought,  my  soul  went  out  after 
Him,  this  awful,  overwhelming  Power  that  holds  all  things  in  equi- 
librium, and  has  come  back  again  with  some  dim,  shuddering  con- 
sciousness that  He  is,  and  some  sweet  faith  that  '  He  is  a  rewarder 
of  all  such  as  diligently  seek  him.'  I  have  looked  at  my  pliant, 
active  fingers  and  wondered  over  this  strange  imparted  force  that 
is  ordained  to  live  a  while  in  me,  that  joins  itself  in  some  weird 
way  to  muscle,  sinew,  tissue  and  bone;  that  filters  through  my 
nerves  and  makes  all  things  alive,  among  them  the  organic  shape 
that  is  called  me.  I  wish  I  could  talk  tonight  with  some  one  who 
would  say,  with  quick,  emphatic  gesture,  'Yes,  I  understand;  I 
have  felt  so  too. '  '  Be  Caesar  to  thyself. '  The  words  are  brave, 
but  tonight  I  am  too  tired  to  say  them  truly,  and  so  I  will  pray  to 
God  and  go  to  sleep." 

It  was  during  the  leisure  of  convalescence  from  the  serious 
illness  that  prevented  her  presence  at  the  graduating  exercises  of 
her  class  that  Frances  Willard's  first  affirmative  turning  toward  a 
religious  life  began,  and  it  began  very  simply.  These  ' '  hidden 
things  of  the  heart  "  are  best  told  by  herself,  and  happy  are  we  in 
their  priceless  possession. 

' ' GOD    AND    MV    HEART " 

"It  was  one  night  in  June,  1859.  I  was  nineteen  years  old 
and  was  lying  on  my  bed  in  my  home  at  Evanston,  Illinois,  ill  with 
typhoid  fever.  The  doctor  had  said  that  the  crisis  would  soon 
arrive,  and  I  had  overheard  his  words.  Mother  was  watching  in 
the  next  room.  My  whole  soul  was  intent  as  two  voices  seemed  to 
speak  within  me,  one  of  them  saying,  'My  child,  give  me  thy 


RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT  51 

heart.  I  called  thee  long  by  joy,  I  call  thee  now  by  chastisement; 
but  I  have  called  thee  always  and  only  because  I  love  thee  with  an 
everlasting  love. '  The  other  said,  '  Surely,  you  who  are  so  reso- 
lute and  strong  will  not  break  down  now  because  of  physical 
feebleness.  You  are  a  reasoner  and  never  yet  were  you  convinced 
of  the  reasonableness  of  Christianity.  Hold  out  now  and  you  will 
feel  when  you  get  well  just  as  you  used  to  feel.' 

' '  One  presence  was  to  me  warm,  sunny,  safe,  with  an  impres- 
sion as  of  snowy  wings;  the  other  cold,  dismal,  dark,  with  the 
flutter  of  a  bat.  The  controversy  did  not  seem  brief;  in  my  weak- 
ness such  a  strain  would  doubtless  appear  longer  than  it  was.  But 
at  last,  solemnly,  and  with  my  whole  heart,  I  said,  not  in  spoken 
words,  but  in  the  deeper  language  of  consciousness,  '  If  God  lets 
me  get  well  I'll  try  to  be  a  Christian  girl.'  But  this  resolve  did 
not  bring  peace.  '  You  must  at  once  declare  this  resolution, '  said 
the  inward  voice. 

' '  Strange  as  it  seems,  and  complete  as  had  always  been  my 
frankness  toward  my  dear  mother,  far  beyond  what  is  usual  even 
between  mother  and  child,  it  cost  me  a  greater  humbling  of  my 
pride  to  tell  her  than  the  resolution  had  cost  of  self-surrender,  or 
than  any  other  utterance  of  my  whole  life  has  involved.  After  a 
hard  battle,  in  which  I  lifted  up  my  soul  to  God  for  strength,  I 
faintly  called  to  her  from  the  next  room  and  said :  '  Mother,  I 
wish  to  tell  you  that  if  God  lets  me  get  well  I'll  try  to  be  a. 
Christian  girl.' 

' '  She  took  my  hand,  knelt  beside  my  bed,  and  softly  wept 
and  prayed.  I  then  turned  my  face  to  the  wall  and  sweetly  slept. 

"That  winter  we  had  revival  services  in  the  old  Methodist 
church  at  Evanston.  Doctor  (now  Bishop)  Foster  was  president  of 
the  university,  and  his  sermons,  with  those  of  Doctors  Dempster, 
Bannister  and  others,  deeply  stirred  my  heart.  I  had  convalesced 
slowly  and  spent  several  weeks  at  Forest  Home,  so  these  meetings 
seemed  to  be  my  first  public  opportunity  of  declaring  my  new  alle- 
giance. The  very  earliest  invitation  to  go  forward,  kneel  at  the 
altar  and  be  prayed  for  was  heeded  by  me.  Waiting  for  no  one, 


52  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

counseling  with  no  one,  I  went  alone  along  the  aisle  with  my  heart 
beating  so  loud  that  I  thought  I  could  see  as  well  as  hear  it  beat  as 
I  moved  forward.  One  of  the  most  timid,  shrinking  and  sensitive 
of  natures,  what  it  meant  to  me  to  go  forward  thus,  with  my 
student  friends  gazing  upon  me,  can  never  be  told.  I  had  been 
known  as  '  skeptical, '  and  prayers  (of  which  I  then  spoke  lightly) 
had  been  asked  for  me  in  the  church  the  year  before.  For  four- 
teen nights  in  succession  I  thus  knelt  at  the  altar,  expecting  some 
utter  transformation  —  some  portion  of  heaven  to  be  placed  in  my 
inmost  heart,  as  I  have  seen  the  box  of  valuables  placed  in  the 
corner-stone  of  a  building  and  firmly  set,  plastered  over  and  fixed 
in  its  place  forever.  This  is  what  I  had  determined  must  be  done, 
and  was  loath  to  give  it  up.  I  prayed  and  agonized,  but  what  I 
sought  did  not  occur. 

' '  One  night  when  I  returned  to  my  room  baffled,  weary  and 
discouraged,  and  knelt  beside  my  bed,  it  came  to  me  quietly  that 
this  was  not  the  way ;  that  my  '  conversion, '  my  '  turning  about, ' 
my  '  religious  experience '  (re-ligare,  to  bind  again),  had  reached  its 
crisis  on  that  summer  night  when  I  said  '  yes '  to  God.  A  quiet 
certitude  of  this  pervaded  my  consciousness,  and  the  next  night  I 
told  the  public  congregation  so,  gave  my  name  to  the  church  as  a 
probationer,  and  after  holding  this  relation  for  a  year  —  waiting  for 
my  sister  Mary,  who  joined  later,  to  pass  her  six  months'  proba- 
tion, I  was  baptized  and  joined  the  church,  May  5,  1861,  'in  full 
connection.'  Meanwhile  I  had  regularly  led,  since  that  memora- 
ble June,  a  prayerful  life  —  which  I  had  not  done  for  some  months 
previous  to  that  time;  studied  my  Bible,  and,  as  I  believe,  evinced 
by  my  daily  life  that  I  was  taking  counsel  of  the  heavenly  powers. 
Prayer  meeting,  class  meeting  and  church  services  were  most 
pleasant  to  me,  and  I  became  an  active  worker,  seeking  to  lead 
others  to  Christ.  I  had  learned  to  think  of  and  believe  in  God  in 
terms  of  Christ  Jesus.  This  had  always  been  my  difficulty,  as  I 
believe  it  is  that  of  so  many.  It  seems  to  me  that  by  nature  all 
spiritually  disposed  people  (and  with  the  exception  of  about  six 
months  of  my  life,  I  was  always  strongly  that)  are  Unitarians,  and 


RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT  53 

my  chief  mental  difficulty  has  always  been,  and  is  today  after  all 
these  years,  to  adjust  myself  to  the  idea  of  '  Three  in  one '  and 
'One  in  three.'  But  while  I  will  not  judge  others  there  is  for  me 
no  final  rest,  except  as  I  translate  the  concept  of  God  into  the 
nomenclature  and  personality  of  the  New  Testament.  What  Paul 
says  of  Christ,  is  what  I  say;  the  love  John  felt,  it  is  my  dearest 
wish  to  cherish." 

In  her  ripest  years  she  wrote  from  the  rich  fullness  of  knowl- 
edge and  experience :  ' '  The  Life  of  God  flowing  into  the  soul  of 
man  is  the  only  Life,  and  all  my  being  sets  toward  Him  as  the 
rivers  to  the  sea.  Celestial  things  grow  dearer  to  me  every  day 
and  I  grow  poorer  in  my  own  eyes  save  as  God  gives  to  me.  I 
still  care  a  little  too  much  for  the  good  words  of  the  good,  but  God 
helps  me  even  in  that." 

How  Christlike  she  became  the  whole  world  knows.  How 
great  she  grew  in  gentleness,  how  simple  in  prayer,  how  trustfully 
she  waited  upon  the  Lord,  whose  grace  all  her  childhood  through 
was  touching  her  fine  spirit  to  the  finest  issues  of  her  future  life! 
How  much  of  that  inner  peace,  rest,  candor  and  simplicity  radiated 
out  in  the  abundant  warmth,  sweetness,  serenity  and  power  of  her 
life  and  her  life's  high  aim  and  great  endeavor!  And  at  the  last, 
when  God  for  many  years  had  had  His  will  and  way  with  her,  how 
the  whole  self-nature  became  the  obedient  servant  of  her  inward 
humility  toward  Him,  and  her  outgoing  helpfulness  to  men.  The 
' '  good  words  of  the  good  "  are  forever  abundantly  hers. 


CHAPTER  V 

TEACHER PRECEPTRESS DEAN 

IT  was  at  Forest  Home  where  all  her  young  ambitions  were 
born  that  Frances,  recuperating  from  the  illness  of  her  grad- 
uation year,  determined  to  teach.  Few  other  paths  were 
then  open  to  adventurous  spirits  among  women,  and  even  this 
course  was  strongly  deprecated  by  Miss  Willard's  father,  while  he 
must  have  admired  his  own  force  of  character  as  shown  in  his 
child's  outcry  for  independence  at  whatever  cost:  ' '  I  have  not  yet 
been  out  in  the  world  to  do  and  dare  for  myself,"  she  argued. 
' '  Single  handed  and  alone  I  should  like  to  try  my  powers,  for  I 
have  remained  in  the  nest  a  full-grown  bird  long  enough,  and  too 
long.  It  is  an  anomaly  in  natural  history. " 

Through  the  Superintendent  of  Cook  County  Public  Schools 
a  primitive  red  schoolhouse  away  out  on  the  prairie,  ten  miles  from 
Chicago,  was  discovered  minus  a  teacher,  and  this  plucky  young 
woman  as  usual  won  the  day  and  in  her  twenty-first  year  found  at 
' '  Harlem  "  a  surplus  of  isolation  and  a  sufficient  field  for  the  cul- 
tivation of  her  powers. 

While  packing  her  trunk  for  this  first  new  departure  Miss 
Willard  philosophized  thus: 

'  *  If  I  become  a  teacher  in  some  school  that  I  do  not  like,  if  I 
go  away  alone  and  try  what  I  myself  can  do  and  suffer,  and  am 
tired  and  lonesome ;  if  I  am  in  a  position  where  I  must  have  all  the 
responsibility  myself  and  must  be  alternately  the  hammer  that 
strikes  and  the  anvil  that  bears,  I  think  I  may  grow  to  be  strong 
and  earnest  in  practice,  as  I  have  always  tried  to  be  in  theory.  So 
here  goes  for  a  fine  character.  If  I  were  not  intent  upon  it,  I  could 
live  contented  here  at  Swampscott  all  my  days. " 

54 


TEA  CHER  —  PR E CEP  TRESS—  DEAN  55 

Well  for  her  that  of  good  humor  and  stoutness  of  heart  she 
had  a  plentiful  supply,  for  on  her  arrival  at  Harlem  she  found  her 
savage  little  pupils  had  broken  the  windows  and  were  engaged  in 
' '  sundry  forms  of  controversy  emphasized  with  fisticuffs. "  Imag- 
ine the  wonder  of  these  twenty  pupils,  most  of  whom  were  foreign- 
ers of  different  nationalities,  when  on  the  opening  morning  this 
frank-souled,  sweet-voiced  young  schoolmistress  read  a  few  verses 
from  her  little  pocket  Testament  and  suggested  they  should  sing  a 
hymn.  We  are  inclined  to  differ  from  Miss  Willard's  afterthought 
that  the  hymn  selected  was  "incongruous  though  familiar,"  and 
heartily  wish  we  might  have  heard  the  aspiring  little  company's 
attempt  to  sing  ' '  I  want  to  be  an  angel. " 

Happy  little  hoodlums!  No  doubt  their  angelic  qualities 
speedily  developed  under  an  alert-minded  teacher  who  could  pray 
like  a  seraph,  but  could  also  manage  the  boy  taller  than  herself 
who  needed  a  bit  of  trouncing  in  the  good  old-fashioned  way. 

Miss  Willard's  voluminous  records  of  this  first  period  of  teach- 
ing would  make  a  valuable  handbook  of  the  art,  summed  up  in 
her  prescient  observation,  ' '  When  you  get  them  all  to  think  alike 
and  act  alike  by  your  command,  you  can  do  with  them  what  you 
will." 

The  hammer  blows  were  not  lacking,  the  metal  rang  true,  the 
brave  young  spirit  got  more  discipline  than  her  pupils,  the  teacher's 
head  was  often  bowed  in  prayer. 

She  found  a  generous-hearted  girl-friend  in  the  home  that 
sheltered  her  during  these  days  when  life  was  a  serious  business 
and  the  two  girls  started  a  Sunday  school  in  the  forlorn  little 
schoolhouse,  out  of  which  grew  a  well-ordered  Methodist  church  in 
what  is  now  the  charming  Chicago  suburb  of  River  Forest. 

As  an  assistant  in  the  Academy  at  Kankakee,  forty  miles  from 
Chicago,  Miss  Willard  spent  only  one  term,  her  brother  Oliver 
meanwhile  succeeding  her  on  the  Harlem  prairie,  going  thither 
with  his  father's  blessing  and  his  sensible  reminder,  ' '  If  you  do  as 
well  with  that  school  as  Frank  has  done  I  shall  be  perfectly  satis- 
fied." 


56  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

One  of  the  first  beautiful  outgrowths  of  the  independent  life 
this  young  teacher  had  longed  for  was  seen  when  the  County  Bible 
Association  met  in  Kankakee,  and  Miss  Willard  wrote  her  mother, 
"When  they  took  up  a  collection  and  I  wrote  '  F.  E.  W.,  $i,'  I 
felt  a  new  thanksgiving  that  I  could  earn  and  use  money  according 
to  my  own  judgment.  I  have  promised  myself  that  I  will  give  as 
much  as  I  can  from  all  my  earnings  to  promote  the  doing  of  good 
in  the  world." 

After  a  home  vacation  Miss  Willard  again  taught  the  Harlem 
school  for  a  few  weeks  in  the  spring  of  1861,  and  on  her  return 
to  Evanston,  as  she  has  chronicled  the  story,  ' '  for  three-quarters 
of  a  year  she  wore  a  ring  and  acknowledged  an  allegiance  based  on 
the  supposition  that  an  intellectual  comradeship  was  sure  to  deepen 
into  unity  of  heart." 

In  1862  we  find  her,  in  company  with  Mary  Bannister,  battling 
with  youthful  Evanstonians  in  the  public  school;  a  typical  Ameri- 
can specimen  of  that  institution  where  demure  and  well-bred  chil- 
dren brought  bouquets  and  beaming  smiles  to  "teacher,"  and 
where  two  overgrown  boys,  alarmed  at  Miss  Willard's  approach, 
stick  in  hand,  vaulted  out  of  an  open  window  and  never  dared 
return. 

Into  these  bright  days,  when  teaching  and  the  charm  of  home 
joys  made  a  composite  wellnigh  perfect,  there  came  the  first  great 
grief  of  Miss  Willard's  life.  She  lost  her  sister  Mary,  the  gentle 
girl  with  sensitive  ethical  standards,  keen  love  of  the  beautiful  and 
the  good,  whose  going  changed  all  the  world  to  her  sister  Frances 
and  in  an  age  of  skepticism  gave  her  "an  anchor  that  would  hold." 

Other  changes  rapidly  followed.  The  sweet  home  by  the 
lake,  every  tree  and  shrub  surrounding  it  beloved  by  Frances,  was 
sold;  Forest  Home  passed  out  of  the  hands  that  had  builded  and 
blessed  it;  Oliver,  the  young  theologian,  and  Mary  Bannister,  his 
wife,  were  soon  to  go  to  their  new  home  in  Denver,  Colorado, 
when  in  August  of  this  year,  1862,  Frances  was  elected  Preceptress 
of  Natural  Sciences  in  her  alma  mater.  Until  the  close  of  the 
year  she  taught  nine  and  ten  classes  per  day,  while  the  keynote  of 


TEA  CHER  —  PRECEPTRESS—  DEAN  57 

all  her  underlying  thought  and  spirit's  yearning  was  set  to  the 
pitiful  refrain,  "Mary  didn't  get  well." 

Two  years  of  teaching  in  the  Pittsburg  Female  College 
opened  a  wider  circle  of  life  to  Miss  Willard.  A  friend  then 
closely  associated  with  her  writes:  "We  all  recognized  in  the 
brilliant,  genial,  warm-hearted  girl  a  genius  which  was  rare  and 
which  seemed  to  give  promise  of  much  in  the  future,  and  yet  none 
of  us  dreamed  of  the  career  that  was  before  her  and  of  the  grand 
achievements  of  her  life.  She  was  always  bubbling  over  with  wit 
and  humor,  and  at  the  same  time  full  of  pathos  and  sentiment. 
She  had  already  been  touched  by  the  subduing  power  of  a  great 
sorrow  which  had  not  embittered  her  but  made  her  more  tender 
and  loving  toward  all.  She  seemed  to  have  a  vocabulary  of  her 
own  and  often  used  words  and  phrases  of  her  own  coining,  and 
with  a  sang  froid  which  no  other  person  could  ever  imitate.  I  can 
see  her  now  as  I  often  saw  her  then,  sitting  on  the  steps  of  the  old 
college  of  a  summer  evening,  surrounded  by  a  bevy  of  teachers 
and  students,  holding  them  spellbound  by  the  power  of  her  vivid 
imagination,  and  ofttimes  convulsed  with  laughter  at  her  sallies  of 
genuine  wit.  She  had  a  wonderfully  magnetic  influence  over 
young  girls,  believed  in  them,  trusted  them,  stood  by  them,  often 
when  others  condemned,  and  sought  out  those  who  were  shy  and 
retiring  and  had  little  confidence  in  themselves,  praised  them  for 
their  smallest  efforts,  and  sought  ever  to  inspire  them  with  her  own 
high  ideals  of  life  and  character. " 

While  in  Pittsburg,  Miss  Willard's  strange  new  sense  of  loss 
and  loneliness  was  solaced  as  she  sang  herself  into  the  pages  of 
' '  Nineteen  Beautiful  Years, "  that  blessed  biography  of  her  heav- 
enly human  sister  Mary,  that  tells  everybody  to  be  good. 

On  Miss  Willard's  return  to  Evanston  she  was  one  of  a  tal- 
ented trio  who  taught  the  Grove  School,  a  private  enterprise  where 
Miss  Willard  found  an  opportunity  of  putting  many  of  her  unique 
pedagogic  inventions  to  a  successful  practical  test  among  ' '  the 
best-born  and  best-mannered  children  in  Evanston."  In  the 
summer  vacation  of  that  year  Miss  Willard,  as  Corresponding 


58  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Secretary  of  the  American  Methodist  Ladies'  Centenary  Associa- 
tion, helped  to  build  Heck  Hall  in  Evanston,  a  home  building  for 
the  students  of  the  Garrett  Biblical  Institute. 

When  her  parents  were  established  in  Rest  Cottage,  their 
new  home,  in  the  autumn  of  1866,  Miss  Willard  taught  for  a  year 
as  preceptress  in  the  Genessee  Wesleyan  Seminary  (the  oldest 
seminary  of  the  Methodist  Church)  in  the  historic  village  of  Lima, 
New  York,  only  thirty  miles  from  her  birthplace. 

In  January,  1 868,  another  severance  in  the  sacred  home  circle 
brought  its  vigils  and  its  sorrow  —  Miss  Willard's  honored  father, 
after  a  lingering  illness,  the  last  weeks  of  which  were  spent  in 
Churchville,  "going  triumphantly  home  to  God." 

When,  in  the  spring,  Miss  Kate  A.  Jackson,  a  loved  and 
sympathetic  friend  who  for  several  years  had  lived  and  taught 
with  Miss  Willard,  proposed  a  ' '  tour  of  Europe, "  it  was  a  joy  that 
lost  nothing  for  its  complete  and  fresh  surprise.  What  more 
natural  than  for  Miss  Jackson  to  gain  her  generous  father's  consent 
to  meet  every  expense  of  the  extended  journey  these  enthusiasts 
planned,  the  keen  and  kindly  gentleman  telling  Miss  Willard  she 
must  believe  that  it  was  to  him  the  fulfillment  of  an  earnest  desire 
that  his  daughter  should  go  abroad,  but  never  until  now  had  he 
found  one  with  whom  he  felt  inclined  to  send  her. 

Could  Miss  Willard's  mother  bear  the  loneliness  of  another 
separation?  Yes,  Spartan  that  she  was,  with  her  child's  good  ever 
forming  the  horizon  of  her  own  hopes  and  happiness,  she  would  go 
to  Oliver  and  Mary  in  Appleton,  Wisconsin,  while  Frances  and 
Kate  studied  Europe  and  themselves. 

Miss  Willard  returned  from  that  wonderful  trip  abroad  with  a 
human  picture  gallery  in  her  heart  far  exceeding  in  its  riches  and 
realities  the  galleries  of  Europe  whose  masterpieces  crowded  her 
brain.  ' '  What  can  be  done  to  make  the  world  a  wider  place  for 
women  ?  "  was  the  question  that  surged  through  her  soul. 

In  Paris  came  the  prophetic  inspiration  which,  if  courageously 
carried  out,  she  felt  would  best  satisfy  her  resolute  ideals.  This 
brave  plan  was  "to  study  by  reading,  personal  observation  and 


TEA  CHER  —  PR E CEP  TRESS—  D^AN  59 

acquaintance  the  woman  question  in  Europe,  and,  after  returning  to 
America,  study  it  further  in  relation  to  her  own  land;  talk  in  public 
on  the  subject  and  cast  herself  with  what  weight  or  weakness  she 
possessed  against  the  only  foe  of  what  she  conceived  to  be  the 
justice  of  the  subject  —  unenlightened  public  opinion."  "It  is  to 
be  a  word-and-idea  battle, "  she  wrote,  ' '  that  will  only  deepen  with 
years  and  must  at  last  have  a  result  that  will  delight  all  who  have 
helped  to  hasten  it." 

It  was  ' '  the  human  question  "  rather  than  the  woman  ques- 
tion, as  Miss  Willard  has  eloquently  affirmed,  that  was  shaping 
itself  in  her  mind  and  winning  her  heart's  loyalty,  when  on  St. 
Valentine's  day,  1871,  she  was  elected  President  of  the  Evanston 
College  for  Ladies,  the  first  woman  to  whom  such  a  title  was  ever 
accorded. 

The  history  of  the  relation  of  this  college  to  its  neighbor  Uni- 
versity, the  Northwestern,  has  more  than  once  repeated  itself  in 
the  evolution  of  the  higher  education  of  women  during  the  last 
thirty  years.  Mrs.  Mary  F.  Haskin  and  other  thoughtful  women 
of  Evanston,  anxious  to  secure  for  their  daughters  the  advantages 
for  study  they  themselves  had  missed,  founded  a  woman's  college 
with  a  board  of  women  trustees,  a  woman  president  who  should 
confer  diplomas  and  be  recognized  and  proved  as  the  peer  of  men 
in  administrative  power. 

Coincident  with  the  transfer  of  Miss  Willard's  alma  mater, 
the  Northwestern  Female  College,  with  its  list  of  alumnae,  to  the 
trusteeship  of  the  Evanston  College  for  Ladies,  Rev.  Dr.  (after- 
ward Bishop)  E.  O.  Haven  accepted  the  presidency  of  the  North- 
western University  on  condition  that  ' '  every  door  should  be  flung 
wide  to  humanity's  gentler  half."  Doctor  Haven  possessed  suffi- 
cient skill  and  diplomacy  to  meet  the  problem  of  this  triangle  of 
educational  interests  —  the  old  college,  the  new  college  and  the 
university  —  and  under  his  presidency  the  two  institutions  moved 
on  in  the  utmost  harmony. 

The  new  president  of  the  college  threw  herself  with  great  zest 
into  this  endeavor.  A  better  building  was  needed;  the  "Woman's 


60  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Fourth  of  July  "  was  planned,  and  for  three  months  Miss  Willard 
waked  and  slept  in  a  combined  atmosphere  of  education  and 
patriotism.  The  Educational  Association,  with  Mrs.  A.  H.  Hoge 
as  president,  sent  out  countless  circulars ;  Miss  Willard's  ingenious 
brain  and  busy  hand  were  back  of  many  of  the  original  plans  that 
resulted  in  a  "  Woman's  Fourth, "  with  no  suggestion  of  cannon  or 
torpedo,  but  with  a  subscription  list  that  aggregated  $30,000,  and 
a  sale  of  $3,000  worth  of  dinners  to  the  hungry  participants  in 
the  fun  and  frolic  of  the  day.  Everybody  helped  in  most  gen- 
erous fashion;  the  village  authorities  presented  the  Committee 
with  one  of  its  parks  as  the  building  site  of  the  college,  and  on  that 
Fourth  the  corner  stone  of  the  new  building  was  laid,  women's 
hands  assisting  in  the  ceremony  amid  great  rejoicings  of  heart. 

The  first  catalogue  of  the  Evanston  College  for  Ladies  con- 
tains a  statement  from  the  president,  Miss  Willard,  regarding  her 
plan  for  ' '  self-government, "  a  question  of  such  vital  interest  to  her 
then  and  throughout  her  life,  and  to  the  cause  of  education  as  well, 
that  we  record  it  briefly  here. 

1 '  The  general  basis  of  government  in  this  institution  is,  that 
merit  shall  be  distinguished  by  privilege.  Any  young  lady  who 
establishes  for  herself  a  trustworthy  character  will  be  trusted 
accordingly.  After  a  probation  of  one  term,  anyone  who,  during 
this  time,  has  been  loyal  to  the  regulations  of  the  school,  and  has 
not  once  required  reproof,  will  have  her  name  inscribed  upon  the 
'  Roll  of  Honor '  and  will  be  invested  with  certain  powers  and 
responsibilities  usually  restricted  to  the  '  Faculty. '  The  '  Roll  of 
Honor '  has  its  constitution,  officers  and  regular  meetings,  and  sends 
reports  to  the  teachers  relative  to  the  trusts  of  which  it  is  made  the 
depository.  A  single  reproof  '  conditions, '  and  two  reproofs  remove 
any  of  its  members,  who  can  regain  their  places  by  the  same  proc- 
ess through  which  they  were  first  attained.  Those  who,  during 
one  entire  term,  have  not  been  '  conditioned '  upon  the  roll  of 
honor,  are  promoted  to  the  'Self-Governed  List'  and  give  this 
pledge :  '  I  will  try  so  to  act  that,  if  all  others  followed  my  example, 
our  school  would  need  no  rules  whatever.  In  manners  and  in 


TEA  CHER  —  PRECEP TRESS—  DEAN  6 1 

punctuality  I  will  try  to  be  a  model,  and  in  all  my  intercourse  with 
my  teachers  and  schoolmates  I  will  seek,  above  all  else,  the  things 
that  make  for  peace. ' 

"Thenceforward  these  young  ladies  'do  as  they  please,'  so 
long  as  they  '  please '  to  do  right.  Every  pupil  in  school  is  eligible, 
first,  to  the  roll  of  honor;  next,  to  a  place  among  the  'self-gov- 
erned'; hence  there  is  no  ground  of  jealousy.  Scholarship  does 
not  enter  into  the  requirements  of  admission  —  character  is  placed 
above  all  competition  here. 

"It  is  believed  that  this  system  may  develop  a  true  sentiment 
of  'honor'  among  pupils,  one  that  shall  favor  the  school  rather 
than  the  delinquent.  The  false  ideas  of  honor  that  still  prevail  to 
an  absurd  extent  among  young  people  at  school  are  the  last  relics 
of  the  mediaeval  system  of  oppression,  and  of  espionage,  its  sworn 
ally.  As  a  democratic  form  of  government  inspires  the  sentiment 
of  loyalty  to  itself,  and  implies  the  duty  of  all  patriotic  citizens  to 
bring  to  justice  those  whose  conduct  threatens  the  public  welfare, 
so  in  an  institution  where  the  pupils  are  intrusted  with  a  part  of 
the  responsibility,  and  where  the  possibility  of  self-government  is 
set  before  them,  it  is  a  logical  inference  that  they  will  stand  by  the 
government  of  which  they  form  a  part." 

In  the  same  catalogue  Miss  Willard  adds: 

"While  it  is  true  that  many  universities  and  colleges  are  now 
nominally  open  to  women,  it  is  equally  true  that,  without  special 
provision  for  convenient  and  economical  residence,  and  for  such 
studies  as  they  may  wish  to  undertake  not  found  in  the  university 
curriculum,  the  advantage  is  often  more  nominal  than  real.  Aside 
from  this,  young  ladies  coming  to  a  university  with  none  of  their 
own  sex  among  the  instructors  to  counsel  them,  sympathize  with 
and  help  them,  cannot  be  said  to  enjoy  advantages  equal  to  those 
which  are  offered  to  young  men.  The  Evanston  College  for 
Ladies,  under  the  direction  and  control  of  a  board  of  lady  trustees, 
seeks  to  make  these  special  provisions  and  to  aid  the  Northwestern 
to  accomplish  its  nobly  undertaken  task  —  the  higher  education 
of  women." 


62  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Miss  Willard  was  facing  one  of  the  gravest  problems  of  the 
educator,  ' '  How  can  I  make  school  discipline  most  conducive  to 
the  formation  of  noble,  self-reliant  character?"  For  a  proof  of 
her  own  plan,  tested  for  two  years  at  the  Evanston  College  for 
Ladies,  I  have  asked  one  of  her  warm-hearted,  quick-brained  pupils 
of  that  history-making  period,  and  Mrs.  Isabella  Webb  Parks,  a 
leading  Roll  of  Honor  girl,  now  the  mother-teacher  of  a  large  fire- 
side circle  of  her  own,  contributes  the  following  sketch: 

''I  met  Miss  Willard  for  the  first  time  in  the  fall  of  1871. 
The  Northwestern  University,  at  Evanston,  Illinois,  had  just 
opened  its  doors  to  women.  The  women  of  Evanston,  anxious  to 
make  the  experiment  of  co-education  a  success  in  their  town,  had 
organized  the  '  Evanston  College  for  Ladies, '  an  institution  designed 
to  provide  the  young  ladies  who  should  attend  the  University  with 
home  surroundings,  with  women  for  their  counselors  and  friends. 
Of  this  institution  Miss  Willard  was  the  Dean,  and  it  was  my 
happy  lot  to  be  one  of  those  whom  she  always  lovingly  designated 
.as  '  my  girls. '  What  it  was  for  girls  to  be  closely  associated  with 
Miss  Willard  in  the  formative  period  of  their  life,  only  those  who 
knew  her  well  can  at  all  appreciate.  Such  broad  views  of  life  and 
destiny  as  she  opened  to  our  sight ;  such  high  ideals  of  character  as 
she  set  before  us;  such  visions  of  the  heights  to  which  we  might 
climb,  of  the  noble  deeds  we  might  achieve,  and,  with  it  all,  such  a 
deep  and  weighty  sense  of  responsibility  for  the  use  we  made  of 
life  with  its  gifts  and  opportunities,  I  have  never  seen  nor  felt 
through  the  inspiration  of  anyone  else.  It  was  like  living  upon 
Alpine  heights  to  be  associated  with  her. 

"Her  first  Friday  afternoon  talk  to  us  struck  the  keynote  of 
her  influence.  In  those  days  co-education  was  still  looked  upon  as 
very  much  of  an  experiment,  and,  though  I  doubt  if  it  has  been 
tried  in  more  friendly  and  congenial  surroundings  than  at  Evanston, 
there  were  many  there  who  looked  doubtfully  upon  it  and  were 
ready  to  seize  upon  the  slightest  indications  of  evil.  Before  Miss 
Willard  was  gathered  in  that  old  chapel  a  company  of  average 
girls.  None  of  them  wanted  to  do  anything  very  bad.  Many 


TEA  CHER  —  PRECEPTRESS—  DEAN  63 

were  inspired  with  a  more  or  less  earnest  purpose  to  make  the  most 
of  themselves  and  had,  therefore,  sought  these  opportunities  for 
higher  education.  But  the  majority  had  no  clearer  understanding 
of  life's  meaning,  no  deeper  appreciation  of  its  responsibilities  than 
is  usual  among  girls  of  their  age.  They  possessed,  moreover, 
quite  the  average  amount  of  animal  spirits  and  love  of  fun.  Had 
they  been  placed  in  a  regulation  female  seminary  with  its  multitude 
of  inconsequential  rules,  they  would  have  acted  as  girls  usually  do 
under  such  circumstances  —  set  at  naught  the  exasperating  and 
trivial  restrictions  which  implied  a  lack  of  good  sense  and  self- 
respect  on  their  part.  To  my  knowledge  there  were  girls  there 
who  only  waited  the  occasion  to  rebel  against  such  strictures.  But 
in  that  first  talk  Miss  Willard  disarmed  all  such  incipient  rebellion. 
She  gave  us  briefly  the  history  of  the  opening  of  the  University  to 
women,  told  of  President  E.  O.  Haven's  generous,  brotherly  inter- 
est and  faith  in  us;  of  the  anxiety  with  which  the  women  of 
Evanston  had  planned  for  our  coming  and  had  sought  to  make  the 
way  plain  and  easy  before  us;  of  how  ready  they  were  to  help  us 
in  any  way  we  needed  and  with  what  interest  they  were  watching 
us.  Though  we  saw  only  unfamiliar  faces  about  us,  yet,  she  said, 
'  Friendly  eyes  are  upon  you  as  you  walk  our  streets  and  the  kind 
hands  of  strangers  are  ready  to  clasp  yours. '  Then  she  reminded 
us  that  this  was  a  new  movement,  a  step  forward  in  woman's 
advancement,  and  its  success  must  depend  chiefly  upon  those  in 
whose  interest  it  was  made.  With  the  impressive  tone  and  man- 
ner which  only  those  who  have  heard  her  can  appreciate,  she  said, 
'Your  feet  and  mine  are  treading  ground  untrod  before.  I  am 
speaking  to  those  whose  intellects  must  be  active  and  keen,  whose 
hearts  must  be  loyal  and  true,  else  the  new  experiment  is  a  failure. ' 
By  the  time  she  had  finished,  every  girl  in  her  presence  felt  that 
the  eyes  of  all  Evanston  were  fixed  upon  our  little  band  with  anx- 
ious but  sympathetic  and  kindly  interest;  that  the  cause  of  co-edu- 
cation depended  very  largely  upon  our  success  as  students  and  our 
loyalty  to  right;  that  even  the  larger  cause  of  woman's  advance- 
ment was  involved  in  the  use  we  made  of  the  opportunities  now 


64  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

placed  within  our  reach.  I  do  not  believe  there  was  a  girl  there 
who  would  not  have  despised  herself  if  she  had  knowingly  been 
false  to  the  responsibilities  resting  upon  her. 

'  *  It  was  not  long  after  this  that  an  incident  occurred,  small  in 
itself,  yet  very  significant  of  the  effect  of  Miss  Willard's  influence. 
The  old  Seminary  grounds,  which  we  occupied  temporarily  in  the 
hope  of  entering  a  year  later  the  beautiful  new  college  then  build- 
ing, were  very  near  the  railroad  track.  One  afternoon  a  train 
passed  loaded  with  young  men  students.  There  were  twenty  or 
more  girls  in  the  yard  or  on  the  porch,  and  the  young  men  on  the 
train  gave  the  '  Fern.  Sem. '  the  '  Chautauqua  salute. '  Not  a  hand- 
kerchief waved  in  return.  On  the  contrary,  the  demonstration 
was  regarded  in  the  light  of  an  insult  and  called  forth  some  indig- 
nant remarks.  Yet  there  were  girls  in  that  group  who,  under  other 
circumstances,  would  have  considered  it  great  sport  to  answer  the 
salute,  principally  because  it  was  a  defiance  of  a  command  which 
implied  lack  of  sense  and  self-respect  in  those  upon  whom  it  was 
laid.  Miss  Willard  had  given  no  specific  directions  how  her  girls 
should  deport  themselves  toward  young  men  or  anyone  else.  She 
had  simply  inspired  them  with  a  sense  of  their  individual  responsi- 
bility, had  made  them  feel  that  greater  interests  than  they  had 
dreamed  of  depended  upon  their  conduct.  An  '  arrest  of  thought ' 
was  always,  in  her  'view,  a  far  more  effectual  way  of  reaching  the 
desired  end  than  rules  and  monitors,  for  she  believed  that  the  only 
true  government  is  self-government.  It  was  on  this  idea  that  she 
founded  her  self-governed  system,  which  was  a  perfect  success. 

"Never  before  had  I  lived  under  such  a  keen  sense  of  per- 
sonal responsibility,  nor  has  it  been  exceeded  in  later  years.  One 
must  have  been  callous  indeed  to  have  resisted  it  who  lived  under 
her  influence,  for  she  appealed  always  to  the  highest  motives. 
'  Help  us  always  to  be  what  in  her  best  moments  each  of  us  wants 
to  be, '  was  the  frequently  recurring  petition  in  her  prayer  at  our 
evening  devotions.  To  that  ideal  self  she  always  appealed.  She 
seemed  to  ignore  the  possibility  of  our  allowing  any  lower  self  to 
have  a  voice  in  making  up  our  decisions,  and  the  self  to  which  she 


TEA  CHER  —  PRECEPTRESS—  DEAN  65 

thus  appealed  responded.  It  was  the  same  years  after  whan, 
instead  of  half  a  hundred  school  girls,  she  gathered  as  her  pupils 
'  the  women  of  two  hemispheres. '  And  very  seldom  did  those 
appealed  to  disappoint  her.  It  could  not  be  expected  that  there 
should  be  no  exceptions;  Judas  became  a  thief  and  a  traitor  under 
the  constant  influence  of  the  Master  himself,  and  there  were  a  few 
who  did  not  measure  up  to  Miss  Willard's  faith  and  trust.  But  by 
far  the  most  have  been  lifted  up  to  higher  planes  of  life  and 
thought  by  her  generous  confidence. 

4 '  It  was  not  strange  that  warm-hearted  girls,  their  affections 
unchilled  by  experience  with  the  world's  coldness  and  their  faith 
unshaken  by  its  deceptions,  should  have  idolized  her.  Some 
onlookers,  beholding  the  devoted  loyalty  and  passionate  affection 
which  she  inspired  in  us,  declared  that  her  influence  was  inex- 
plicable on  natural  grounds  ;  that  it  actually  bordered  on  the 
uncanny;  that  she  possessed  a  kind  of  occult  magnetism  not  to 
be  resisted  by  those  who  came  within  its  reach.  But  it  was  not 
so.  Her  power  was  only  that  which  a  great  soul,  full  of  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  must  ever  wield  over  its  fellows.  It  is  the  power 
which  has  made  Miss  Willard  the  organizer  and  leader  of  the 
womanhood  of  her  time,  and  the  commanding  figure  of  this 
century. " 

The  story  of  Miss  Willard's  withdrawal  from  her  work  as 
Dean  of  the  Woman's  College  and  of  Professor  of  Esthetics  in 
the  Northwestern  University  is  recorded  in  her  own  words  in  full 
detail.  The  spirit  in  which  she  took  this  step  is  commented  upon 
in  the  address  of  President  Henry  Wade  Rogers,  now  at  the  head 
of  the  University,  on  the  occasion  of  the  Commemorative  Service 
in  Evanston,  and  tribute  has  been  paid  in  this  address  to  the  wis- 
dom of  her  course,  the  thoughtfulness  and  sincerity  of  her  motives 
and  the  sensitive  conscientiousness  of  her  attitude  toward  her  col- 
leagues from  whom  she  was  compelled  to  differ  in  regard  to 
matters  of  administration. 

Dr.  Frank  M.  Bristol,  pastor  of  Miss  Willard's  home  church, 
in  his  farewell  address  to  his  congregation  on  March  27,  said: 


66  'MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

' '  Frances  Willard  taught  me  in  the  University,  and  she  made  the 
classroom  seem  like  a  flower  bed. " 

When  Miss  Willard  introduced  her  self-government  plan  to 
her  college  girls,  she  tells  us  she  felt  ' '  that  she  was  going  into  a 
garden  planted  out  with  beautiful  maiden  flowers. "  Is  not  this  the 
perfection  of  teaching,  that  to  both  teacher  and  pupils  the  recita- 
tion room  should  have  the  orderliness,  life  and  fragrance  of  a 
flower  bed? 

Glad  and  grateful  acclaim  must  fill  the  hearts  of  the  two  thou- 
sand pupils  whose  young  lives  received  the  impress  of  such  a 
teacher:  their  beloved  Miss  Willard  whose  boundless  faith  and  pro- 
phetic insight  taught  them  in  the  wide  fields  of  character  and 
destiny  ' '  How  to  Win. "  Let  her  name  be  loved  and  remem- 
bered in  every  schoolroom  in  the  land. 


CHAPTER  VI 

A    TRAVELER   ABROAD 


9  N  the  days  of  the  Guilds  no  man  could  write  himself  ' '  Mas- 
ter"  until,  as   "journeyman,"  he  had  traveled  from  city  to 
city,  from  land  to  land,  learning  whatever  might  be  new  arid 


serviceable  to  him  in  the  customs  of  his  craft.  When  the  time  of 
his  wandering  was  over,  if  he  had  been  diligent  and  wise,  he 
returned  to  his  own  land,  no  longer  a  mere  workman  provincial  in 
his  art,  but  a  master,  with  a  world-wide  training. 

Frances  E.  Willard,  who  was  to  be  both  mistress  and  teacher 
of  the  art  of  life,  having  already  passed  her  apprenticeship  of 
instruction  and  experimental  practice,  was  now  to  wander  in  other 
lands,  see  life  under  other  conditions,  with  other  customs,  study- 
ing its  advantages  and  disadvantages,  its  helps  and  its  hindrances, 
as  thus  expressed. 

All  the  gathered  gain  and  fruitage  of  the  past,  the  results  of 
the  ripe  culture  of  its  ages  in  art,  music,  literature,  architecture, 
history  —  all  this  she  strove  to  make  her  own.  She  worked  and 
studied  in  every  capital  in  Europe  but  one ;  she  traveled  north  into 
Finland,  east  to  the  banks  of  the  Volga;  she  lived  in  Damascus, 
and  spent  some  time  in  Palestine  in  the  company  of  eminent 
scholars;  she  climbed  the  Pyramids,  and  went  south  till  she  could 
look  over  into  Nubia  and  see  the  Southern  Cross  in  the  sky. 

In  the  course  of  this  trip  few  of  the  fine  flavors  of  the  earth 
escaped  her  discerning  taste.  Give  such  a  woman,  with  such 
capabilities,  such  an  opportunity,  and  she  will  naturally  make  more 
of  it  than  a  regiment  of  smaller  people  could.  As  the  friend  who 
was  her  daily  companion  through  these  years,  herself  a  woman  of 

67 


68  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

more  than  ordinary  perception,  used  to  say:  "I  never  knew  how 
much  we  saw,  or  how  much  there  was  in  what  we  saw,  until  Frank 
began  to  tell  about  it.  Sometimes  I  likened  her  mind  to  the  phi- 
losopher's stone.  Common  clay  turned  to  gold  at  its  touch. " 

It  was  a  great  change  in  circumstances  for  the  young  woman 
who,  not  so  many  years  before,  stood  in  the  barn  door  at  old 
Forest  Home  and  wailed:  "Shall  we  ever  go  anywhere,  or  know 
anything,  or  see  anybody ! "  but  all  seems  to  have  come  about  as 
gently,  each  thing  in  its  time,  as  if  it  were  nothing  uncommon. 
As  George  MacDonald  has  said:  "Not  only  is  the  impossible  pos- 
sible with  God,  but  it  is  verra  possible. " 

Throughout  this  period  Frances  flung  herself  into  the  stream 
of  its  labors  and  enjoyments  with  that  ardor  and  abandon  to  the 
moment,  that  concentration  of  purpose  upon  the  precise  matter  in 
hand,  which  was  her  happy  characteristic  all  her  life.  She  got 
out  of  each  stage,  as  it  came,  all  she  was  capable  of  at  the  time. 
She  was  just  as  brave,  as  bright,  and  as  half-shy,  during  this  trip 
to  Europe  as  she  had  been  at  home.  She  gives  a  diverting 
account  of  the  ' '  benumbing  effect "  upon  her  of  the  stately,  black- 
coated  array  of  waiters  at  the  Lakes  of  Killarney.  But  the 
' '  benumbing  effect "  manifestly  did  not  extend  to  her  brain,  for 
she  accompanies  it  with  one  of  the  most  charming  and  graceful 
accounts  of  the  beauty  of  the  place  ever  penned. 

The  itinerary  of  these  two  pilgrims,  Miss  Willard  and  her 
friend  Miss  Kate  A.  Jackson,  is  fascinating  reading.  Ireland,  Scot- 
land, England,  France,  Switzerland,  Denmark,  Sweden,  Finland, 
Russia,  Poland,  Germany,  Belgium,  Holland,  the  Rhine,  Italy, 
Egypt,  Palestine,  Greece,  Constantinople,  the  Danube,  Hungary, 
Vienna,  Paris,  London,  Paris  again,  are  some  of  the  headings. 
No  wonder  they  had  a  good  time.  Think  of  it!  They  had  all  the 
great  sculpture,  the  perfect  paintings  of  the  world  to  study  till  the 
soul  made  their  largeness  of  line,  fitness  of  composition,  right  har- 
monies of  color,  its  own. 

Miss  Willard  had  always  been  responsive  to  the  spontaneous 
music  of  nature.  Now  she  had  the  great  music  of  ages  of  human 


69 

life  also,  to  vibrate  over  heart  and  nerves.  What  must  this  have 
meant  to  one  who,  as  a  child,  had  kissed  the  old  melodeon  good- 
by,  and  who  eight  years  before  had  written :  ' '  Five  minutes  of 
beautiful  singing  or  playing  will  change  my  entire  mental  attitude. " 

The  two  women  went  everywhere.  The  stage  and  the  stage- 
setting  of  the  drama  of  history  for  centuries  was  before  them,  and 
they  were  deeply  versed  in  history,  not  as  a  dry  study  held  in 
memory  alone,  but  as  students  who,  in  learning  it,  were  so  sympa- 
thetically disposed  that  they  almost  experienced  it  as  they  read. 
For  this  perfect  preparation  Frances  had  to  thank  her  aunt  Sarah, 
one  of  the  greatest  and  most  dramatic  teachers  of  history  this 
country  has  known. 

Nor  did  the  tourists  confine  themselves  to  the  beaten  paths 
which  led  by  the  great  historical  landmarks  only.  They  loved  the 
people  and  the  places  for  their  present  selves.  Both  the  human 
oddity  and  the  human  identity,  as  differing  circumstance  and 
custom  set  them  forth,  were  dear  to  them.  Bicycle  girls  today 
scarcely  search  more  diligently  for  delightful  and  unspoiled  corners. 

They  climbed  the  Alps  to  study  the  serenity  and  poise  of 
monastic  life,  and  loved  the  human-eyed  St.  Bernard  dogs  of  the 
friendly  hospice.  At  London  they  tried  athletic  feats  in  the  globe 
of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  at  least  Frances  did;  Kate  had  more  good 
sense  !  They  went  up  the  Nile  in  a  steamer  borrowed  of  the 
Pasha  for  the  occasion.  Certain  insects  —  not  locusts  —  of  Egypt 
demanded  first  attention,  and  a  half-page  of  journal  comment 
settles  them  as  probably  lineal  descendants  of  the  historical 
plagues.  But  even  the  fleas,  engaging  from  their  very  activity, 
were  forgotten  when  ' '  in  the  frame  of  the  violet  sky  hung  constel- 
lations. "  They  perched  on  the  broken  columns  of  ancient  temples, 
they  faced  with  questioning  woman-eyes  the  eternal  woman,  the 
Sphinx,  themselves  part  of  her  mystery,  most  unknown  to  them- 
selves. 

In  Palestine  they  took  no  joy  in  pretended  tombs  and  places, 
alien  with  the  mixed  breath  of  crowds,  although  they  tried  to 
* '  do  "  them  dutifully.  But  as  the  day  shut  its  doors  they  went 


yo  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

out  to  the  Mount  of  Olives,  where  our  Lord  prayed  in  the  deep- 
ening silence,  and  the  same  stars  looked  down  on  them  which 
looked  on  Him  that  night  so  long  gone  by,  the  same  stars  He  had 
created.  And  they  went  to  Bethany,  the  Lord's  "home  of  rest," 
where  lived  those  He  loved,  who  loved  Him;  Jordan,  and  Jericho, 
and  the  Dead  Sea,  where  by  some  mischance  of  travel  they  found 
themselves  with  just  ten  minutes  to  stay;  but  why  add  to  the  list? 
each  place  lived  again  in  that  clear-cut,  imaginative  life. 

In  Greece  their  time  was  far  too  limited  for  their  limitless 
desires.  It  was  sufficiently  long  for  them,  however,  not  only  to 
see  the  usual  sights,  but  to  search  out  a  shallow,  pebbly  brook, 
perhaps  the  very  brook  through  the  cool  stream  of  which  Socrates 
walked  barefoot  that  bright  Athenian  day,  and  following  along  its 
course  to  a  solitary  turn  where  the  grass  bank  sloped  gently  and  a 
single  tall  tree  grew,  there  sit  down  together  in  its  shade  and  read 
their  Phaedrus  to  the  hum  of  the  cicadse,  and  the  stirring  of  the 
breeze,  and  the  lisp  of  the  brook  around  its  stones;  just  as  at 
Jerusalem  they  looked  for  a  sight  of  the  valley,  now  covered  with 
gardens,  where  was  the  great  single-arched  bridge  across  which  the 
Queen  of  Sheba  advanced  to  meet  King  Solomon,  and  drawing  out 
their  Bible  read  the  story  over. 

In  Italy  Frances  wrote :  "I  never  dreamed  in  those  lethargic 
years  at  home  what  a  wide  world  it  is,  how  full  of  misery."  The 
swarming  wretchedness  of  it  nearly  broke  her  heart.  In  this  grief 
also  she  turned  to  God,  that  omnipotent  Love  and  Wisdom  that 
had  a  right  to  create,  and  created ;  that  Lord  of  Life  ' '  in  Whom 
we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being";  He  who  knows  the  end 
from  the  beginning,  and  had  inexorably  made  us.  ' '  Let  my  soul 
calm  itself,  O  God,  in  Thee !  "  she  cries,  again  and  again. 

But  the  maladministration,  the  love  of  dominion  she  found 
aroused  her  soul  to  revolt  and  abhorrence.  While  her  whole 
European  trip  seemed  on  the  surface  to  be  given  up  to  culture  for 
culture's  sake,  Miss  Willard's  journal  indicates  the  constant  trend 
of  the  deeper  currents  of  her  nature  toward  helping  poor  old 
humanity  that  must  be  lifted  toward  God.  In  Paris  they  studied 


A    TRAVELER  ABROAD  71 

in  the  College  de  France  and  at  the  Sorbonne,  attended  the  lectures 
of  Laboulaye  and  Guizot,  Legouve  Chasles,  Franck,  the  historian, 
Chevalier,  the  political  economist,  and  others,  and  were  there 
for  the  last  time  when  the  German  armies  began  to  gather  their 
hostile  lines  closer  about  the  great  city.  Before  they  left  they 
made  a  last  pilgrimage  to  bid  farewell  to  Our  Lady  of  Milo,  before 
whom  Heine  poured  out  the  heart-break  of  endless  separation. 
After  two  years  and  a  half  of  absence  they  were  ready,  even 
eager,  to  go  home.  Everywhere  they  had  been  welcomed.  Every- 
where their  hearts  and  minds  had  received  profit. 

To  the  freedom  and  pleasure  of  their  movements  Miss  Jack- 
son's knowledge  of  French  had  contributed  much.  Great  store 
they  had  laid  by  for  future  years  of  growth  and  activity,  and  in  the 
fall  of  1870  they  embarked  for  their  own  dear  land. 

From  Miss  Willard's  journals,  faithfully  kept  throughout  this 
eventful  trip,  we  quote  a  section  on  ' '  Egypt, "  and  add  ' '  The  New 
Chivalry,"  Miss  Willard's  first  public  lecture,  of  which  she  has 
said:  "It  is  chiefly  made  up  of  observations  upon  women  in 
Europe  —  whose  sorrowful  estate,  as  I  studied  it,  had  much  to  do 
with  giving  me  the  courage  to  become  a  public  speaker. " 

EGYPT 

FROM   A   YANKEE   SCHOOL-MA' AM' S    POINT   OF    VIEW 

I  rode  on,  all  alone,  a  mile  or  more,  to  Memnon's  statue.  You 
know  the  story  —  that  in  the  magic  days  of  old,  when  the  rays  of 
the  rising  sun  struck  the  statue,  it  gave  forth  sweetest  music.  But 
perhaps  you  do  not  know  that  the  heroic  name  of  Memnon  does  not 
rightfully  belong  to  it,  antiquarians  having  agreed  that  it  is  the 
statue  of  Amenophis,  one  of  Egypt's  ancient  kings.  But  apart 
from  these  pitiless,  prosaic  facts,  this  is  the  most  poetic  piece  of 
sculpture  in  existence,  except  the  sphinx.  And  here  was  I,  riding 
alone  and  free  over  the  plain  of  Thebes,  and  yonder  sat  the 
vocal  statue  on  his  solemn  throne,  just  as  he  was  sitting  at  this 


72  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

same  hour  —  under  these  heavens  —  four  thousand  years  ago. 
Another  statue,  twin  to  this,  but  probably  some  centuries  less  ven- 
erable, and  not  endowed  with  vocal  gifts,  is  close  beside  it.  It  is  a 
near  relative  (some  say  the  uncle  of  its  nephew,  the  vocal  statue), 
and  the  profane  Britishers  christened  the  twain  ' '  Lord  Dundreary 
and  his  brother  Sam. "  My  donkey  galloped  nimbly  around  this 
dignified  pair,  while  I  measured  with  long  glances  the  awful  height 
of  Memnon,  quite  oblivious  of  his  less  celebrated  relative.  Mind- 
ful of  the  explanation  some  scientific  men  have  given  of  the 
musical  tradition,  namely,  that  certain  stones  by  a  rearrangement 
of  their  particles  under  the  influence  of  blows  have  been  known 
to  give  forth  harmonious  sounds,  I  pelted  the  old  patriarch  with 
stones,  but  waked  no  such  response  as  fancy's  ear  had  often 
caught  when  I  was  far  from  Thebes.  A  lithe  Arab,  seeing  my 
endeavor,  climbed  the  statue's  side  and  rapped  away  with  some 
vigor  upon  the  stone  that  lies  across  its  knee,  producing  some  faint 
show  of  resonance,  but  exigent  imagination  sneered  at  this  attempt, 
as  is  its  malicious  custom.  I  picked  up  some  cubes  of  rich  brown 
Nile  mud,  crystallized  here  since  last  the  river  shrank  away  from 
Memnon's  feet,  and  the  dozen  Arabs  who  had  crowded  around  me 
gathered  leaves  and  blades  of  grass  from  the  pedestal's  base  to 
offer  me.  Two  really  pretty  girls  of  twelve  smoothed  my  hand 
with  their  hard,  slim  fingers,  and  looked  me  over  curiously  —  my 
broad-brimmed  hat  with  its  long  white  scarf,  and  my  traveling 
dress  of  navy  blue,  being  as  strange  to  them  as  their  ocher-stained 
fingers,  grease-plastered  hair,  and  three  rings  in  each  ear,  were  to 
myself.  Another  girl  passed  by  as  I  sat  there  in  reverie,  with  a 
mud  tray  upon  her  head  containing  cakes  of  mingled  straw  and 
manure  —  the  only  fuel  of  these  poor  people,  and  generator  of  the 
vermin  which  swarm  in  their  miserable  villages. 

This  sight  brought  me  back  through  two-thirds  of  the  world's 
lifetime,  and  set  me  thinking  about  the  present  of  the  Egyptian 
race  —  a  subject  the  most  painful  I  have  ever  contemplated. 
Especially  does  the  awful  degradation  and  oppression  of  women, 
which  is  its  cause,  here  distress  me.  When  will  the  stronger 


A    TRAVELER  ABROAD  73 

member  of  the  human  family  in  every  land  discover  that  if  he  uses 
his  more  muscular  arm  to  hold  down  to  the  earth  the  weaker  mem- 
ber, he  is  putting  the  knife  to  his  own  breast  —  signing  the  death- 
warrant  of  his  own  manhood  ?  That  two  and  two  make  four  is  not 
more  capable  of  demonstration  than  that  in  every  age  and  country 
woman  has  been  the  stone  around  man's  neck  to  sink  him  to  the 
lowest  depths,  or  the  winged  angel  to  help  him  to  the  purest 
heights  that  he  has  ever  won.  And  away  there  toward  the  sunset, 
beyond  the  mystic  Nile,  the  yellow  sand,  the  wash  of  blue  waves, 
is  the  land  where  man  has  grown  free  enough,  wise  enough,  brave 
enough,  to  let  woman  be  just  what  she  can  become  without  his 
uninspired  restriction  —  the  land  where  man  has  withdrawn  his 
own  in  favor  of  his  Maker's  ' '  thus  far,  and  no  farther. "  Involun- 
tarily I  turned  toward  the  inspiring  west,  and  rode  around  full  of 
thoughts  and  hopes  and  purposes. 

How  can  I  give  some  idea  of  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  Ammon, 
at  Karnak?  Suffice  it  for  my  modest  pages  to  relate,  concerning 
the  most  stupendous  ruins  in  the  world,  that  they  quite  ' '  fill  the 
eye  of  fancy  " —  nay,  even  oppress  that  airy  orb,  such  is  their 
ponderous  magnitude.  Tracing  their  plan  like  that  of  all  Egyp- 
tian temples  (for  these  people,  more  than  any  other,  believed  in 
the  virtue  of  what  the  -wisest  of  all  critics  called  ' '  vain  repeti- 
tion "),  we  passed  in  one  afternoon  through  nearly  three  thousand 
years  of  human  history  and  toil  —  for  such  is  the  gulf  that  sepa- 
rated Ousertesen,  the  projector,  from  Ptolemy- Alexander,  the  last 
restorer  of  the  temple.  Under  such  a  weight  of  time  and  beneath 
such  masses  of  architecture  as  these,  the  mind  feels  oppressed, 
and  struggles  vainly  to  grapple  with  the  abstract  idea  of  duration, 
and  the  concrete  idea  of  columns,  capitals  and  crumbling  walls, 
that  seem  as  if  the  Titans  only  could  have  reared  them. 

We  looked  from  the  lofty  masses  of  architecture  to  the  slim- 
legged  Arabs  crouched  on  fragments  of  rock  below,  and  felt  more 
than  ever  that  they  belonged  to  a  degenerate  race.  If  not,  then 
a  single  despot  soul  like  that  of  Rameses  II.  must  have  wielded  a 
million  bodies  like  these  as  we  control  the  members  of  our  own. 


74  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

A  horrid  thought  this,  heavier  upon  the  heart  than  all  these  piled- 
up  stones.  Never  does  one  get  the  impression  of  ' '  man's  inhu- 
manity to  man  "  so  deeply  graven  on  his  spirit  as  in  this  land,  the 
tyranny  of  whose  kings  have  made  it  accursed  of  God. 

The  king  is  the  one  figure  of  supreme  prominence,  carved 
upon  all  these  noble  columns  and  minutely  sculptured  walls.  He 
stands  proudly  erect,  in  his  chariot;  he  draws  his  bow  victoriously 
against  his  foes,  and  tramples  them  down  under  his  chariot  wheels ; 
contemplates  with  serene  triumph  their  severed  heads  and  hands 
piled  up  before  him  by  his  warriors,  and  offers  as  chief  among 
equals  such  trophies,  human  or  otherwise,  as  please  him,  to  the 
gods.  A  sweet-smelling  savor  are  these  to  the  hawk-headed, 
jackal-headed,  and  crocodile-headed  monsters  whom  the  Egyp- 
tians worshiped,  and  who  alone  dispute  pictorial  honors  with  the 
sovereign.  Not  a  touch  of  pity,  not  a  hand  of  helpfulness,  not  a 
hint  of  charity,  relieves  the  bitter  gloom  that  broods  over  these 
splendid  carvings  of  the  greatest  temple  ever  reared  by  man,  and 
the  heart  turns  wearily  away  while  the  eye  seeks  those  smiling 
heavens  that  bend  in  changeless  love  over  our  poor  world  in  its 
stormful  career,  and  comfort  comes  from  thought  of  Him  who 
reigns  there,  and,  late  or  early,  blots  out  the  very  memory  of  the 
vile  oppressors  of  our  race. 

' '  The  mills  of  God  grind  slowly, 
But  they  grind  exceeding  small," 

I  murmured  with  deep  satisfaction,  as  my  donkey  trotted  home- 
ward over  the  pavement  of  stones,  crumbled  to  powder,  but  which 
once  had  helped  to  make  Sesostris'  pride. 

I  will  close  this  paper  by  a  description  of  Karnak  by  moon- 
light. 

Our  kind  friend,  the  interpreter,  who  had  taken  us  lately,  by  a 
sort  of  tacit  consent,  under  his  care,  produced  for  me  the  very 
cream  of  all  donkeys  for  this  evening's  excursion,  borrowing  him 
from  his  especial  friend,  the  ' '  chief  of  police  "  at  Luxor.  So  it  fell 
out,  that  while  Semiramis  ambled  along  tranquilly,  attended  by 


A    TRAVELER  ABROAD  75 

her  unfailing  escort,  the  interpreter,  I  galloped  on  alone,  my  swift- 
footed  lad  of  the  previous  excursions  dancing  attendance  behind 
me.  That  half-hour's  ride  from  Luxor  over  the  plain  to  Karnak  — 
most  stupendous  of  all  the  Theban  ruins  —  I  shall  never  forget. 
It  was  the  culmination  of  all  the  East  can  yield. 

Above  me  were  new  heavens.  In  the  frame  of  a  violet  sky 
hung  constellations  I  had  never  seen  before  —  their  palpitating 
globes  of  gold  recalled  the  fruit-waving  trees  of  the  Hesperides. 
And  dear,  familiar  stars  were  there,  only  in  places  very  different 
from  those  they  occupied  ' '  in  the  infinite  meadows  of  heaven, " 
that  bent  above  my  home.  The  Dipper  lay  on  the  horizon's  rim, 
tipped  wrong  side  up;  the  Pleiades  had  climbed  far  up  toward  the 
zenith;  and  the  changeless  face  of  the  North  Star  was  hard  to 
recognize  amid  surroundings  so  unusual. 

Around  me  was  a  new  earth.  The  sandy  plain  stretched 
away  into  the  purple  darkness,  full  of  attractive  mystery.  Far 
off  gleamed  the  firefly  lamps  of  a  straggling  Arab  village,  and  on 
the  cool,  invigorating  breeze,  which  had  succeeded  to  the  day's 
stifling  heat,  came  the  lonesome  bark  of  dogs  and  jackals,  so 
characteristic  of  the  East. 

I  rode  beneath  a  grove  of  palm  trees,  magnificent  in  stature, 
and  of  a  symmetry  unequaled  by  any  others  ever  seen.  The 
shadows  that  they  cast,  like  mosaics  in  the  moonlight,  I  could  com- 
pare to  nothing  but  an  emblazoned  shield.  The  white  wall  and 
graceful  dome  of  a  sheik's  tomb  gleamed  through  the  trees  and  for 
a  moment  deepened  the  lacework  of  their  shadows.  I  rode  along 
the  ruined  avenue  of  sphinxes  that  once  extended  over  the  mile 
that  separates  the  temple  at  Luxor  from  that  of  Zamah.  How 
still  it  was,  and  how  significant  that  stillness  in  the  highway 
through  which,  for  two  thousand  years  and  more,  all  that  was 
rarest  and  most  royal  in  the  wide  earth  had  proudly  passed  — 
processions  of  kings  and  priests  and  captives,  compared  with  which 
those  of  the  Greeks  were  as  the  sport  of  children;  and  this  ere 
Romulus  laid  the  first  stone  of  his  far-famed  wall,  or  /Eneas  fretted 
the  blue  waves  of  the  /Egean  with  his  adventurous  prow.  The 


76  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

pride  and  glory  of  a  world  had  here  its  center,  ere  Cadmus  brought 
letters  into  Greece  or  Jacob  saw  his  wondrous  vision  on  the  Judean 
plains.  How  insignificant  is  that  dramatic  justice  which  lends  the 
charm  to  romance,  compared  with  the  visible  hand  of  vengeance 
with  which  a  merciful  God  who  loves  the  creatures  He  has  made 
has  smitten  this  stronghold  of  cruelty  —  wrenched  from  their  lofty 
places  the  statues  of  bloodthirsty  tyrants,  and  sent  the  balm  of 
moonlight  drifting  through  the  shattered  walls,  and  mellowing  the 
fallen  columns  where  once  ' '  power  dwelt  among  her  passions. " 

We  sat  upon  a  broken  pedestal  in  the  great  court  of  the 
temple,  Semiramis  and  I,  and  let  the  wondrous  lesson  of  the  place 
fall  on  our  hearts.  One  isolated  column,  the  last  remaining  frag- 
ment of  a  stately  colonnade,  outlined  itself  against  the  liquid  sky. 
Its  white  shaft  was  brilliant  in  the  moonlight,  and  its  broad  capital, 
corolla-shaped  like  the  lotus  flower,  held  far  aloft,  like  a  lily's  cup, 
uplifted  for  the  dew.  Beyond  was  the  shattered  propylon,  once 
gay  with  the  banners  of  Isis  and  Osiris,  but  frowning  now  like  the 
bastion  of  a  fortress;  while  still  beyond,  an  avalanche  of  fallen 
rocks  showed  where  ruin  had  struck  the  Temple  of  Jupiter-Ammon 
its  blow  of  doom. 

More  distant  still  was  the  forest  of  columns  which  has  been 
the  wonder  of  all  travelers  —  unequaled  in  its  kind  by  any  work  of 
man.  It  numbers  134  pillars,  70  feet  in  height  and  35  in  circum- 
ference (or  about  1 1  feet  thick),  covered  from  base  to  abacus  with 
carefully  wrought  sculptures,  brilliantly  colored  in  their  palmy  days. 
A  single  one  among  these  massive  pillars  had  been  wrested  from 
the  foundation,  and  leaned  heavily,  with  its  huge  architecture, 
against  its  neighbor,  perhaps  the  most  mournfully  significant 
column  that  human  hands  had  ever  carved  from  stone  and  left  to 
the  slow  canceration  of  time  and  ruin. 

Last  of  all,  at  the  end  of  this  long  vista  which  comprises 
twenty-eight  centuries  of  human  history,  gleamed  the  tapering 
ringer  of  the  largest  obelisk  in  Egypt,  as  fresh  and  clear-cut  in  its 
outline  as  on  the  day  the  chisel  left  it  —  the  chisel  held  by  a  name- 
less artisan  who  had  become  a  mummy  before  Phidias  had  reared 


A    TRAVELER  ABROAD  77 

the  Parthenon  or  Zeuxis  and  Appelles  commenced  their  rivalries. 
Against  this  obelisk  leaned  an  old  Arab  in  voluminous  white  turban, 
and  at  its  base  were  seated  several  others,  all  by  their  costumes  and 
their  bearing  as  perfectly  in  harmony  with  the  scene  as  human 
accessories  could  be,  and  lending  to  it  a  strange  charm  as  the  mind 
reverts  to  those  who  reared  this  temple,  and  contrasts  with  theirs 
the  insignificant  achievements  of  their  descendants. 

In  that  far-off  realm  of  our  endless  life  shall  we  some  day 
meet  these  mighty  builders  whose  work  we  contemplate  under 
these  moonlit  heavens?  What  a  thought  is  that,  that  in  this 
changeful  round  of  being  we  shall  encounter  somewhere,  some  day, 
the  awful  king  Sesostris,  the  witching  Cleopatra,  the  Pharaoh 
overwhelmed  in  the  revengeful  sea. 

But  hark!  They  have  arrived,  the  four  and  forty  whom  we 
call  ' '  the  others. "  In  phalanx  close  they  ride  through  the  vast 
courts,  among  the  hundred  pillars;  some  with  cigars  in  mouth, 
others  in  lively  conversation,  and  all  at  a  brisk  trot.  One  jolly 
young  Englishman  fires  off  a  pistol  two  paces  from  us,  at  the  base 
of  the  lone  pillar  with  the  capital  of  lotus  flower. 

Our  donkey  boys  accumulate;  their  shrill  voices  pierce  the 
ruined  temple  through  and  through ;  their  offers  of  a  porcelain 
scarabseus,  a  glass  sphinx,  a  scrap  of  papyrus,  a  chip  of  mummy 
case,  become  vociferous.  We  climb  with  much  alacrity  upon  our 
donkeys  and  hurriedly  gallop  back  across  the  wide  and  pleasant 
plain  to  our  steamer  at  Luxor. 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY;   OR,  THE  SCHOOLMISTRESS  ABROAD 

Bayard  Taylor,  Du  Chaillu,  Dr.  Hayes  and  Paul  picture  for 
us  the  inhospitable  climes  in  whose  exploration  they  hazarded  their 
lives;  Emily  Faithful  comes  across  seas  to  tell  us  of  her  work 
among  the  toiling  masses  of  Great  Britain;  the  Sage  of  Concord, 
founder  of  our  lecture  system,  comes  from  his  meditations  to  tell 
us  that  he  heard  a  voice  saying  unto  him,  ' '  Write. " 


78  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

A  humbler  duty  lies  upon  my  heart.  I  have  no  poem  to 
recite,  no  marvelous  discovery  to  herald.  I  come  to  you  in  the 
modest  character  of  the  schoolmistress  abroad;  in  the  capacity  of 
friend-in-general  to  our  girls. 

Gail  Hamilton,  in  that  most  racy  of  her  essays,  entitled 
"Men  and  Women,"  exclaims  with  a  burst  of  enthusiasm:  "I 
love  women,  I  adore  them!"  But,  by  way  of  compensation,  she 
declares  in  the  next  sentence  that  ' '  There's  nothing  so  splendid 
as  a  splendid  man. " 

Now,  I  have  no  disposition  to  deny  either  of  Gail's  state- 
ments, but  I  would  repeat  and  emphasize  the  first. 

And  by  ' '  women, "  be  it  distinctly  understood,  I  always  and 
invariably  mean  girls.  The  largest  part  of  my  life,  thus  far,  has 
been  spent  in  their  service.  I  claim  to  have  coaxed  and  reproved, 
caressed  and  scolded,  corrected  the  compositions  and  read  the 
love-letters  of  more  girls  than  almost  any  other  schoolma'am  in 
the  Northwest.  I  began  with  them  before  I  was  eighteen,  in  my 
' '  Forest  Home "  on  the  banks  of  Wisconsin  river,  the  noblest 
river  in  the  world  to  me,  though  since  last  I  floated  on  its  breast  I 
have  wandered  as  far  as  the  Volga,  the  Jordan  and  the  Nile. 

In  district  schools,  academies,  and  ladies'  colleges,  both  East 
and  West,  I  have  pursued  their  fortunes.  In  schools  where  they 
were  marshalled,  two  by  two,  when  taking  daily  exercise,  and 
when  it  was  my  happy  lot  to  be  their  guardian  on  shopping  expe- 
ditions; and  anon  in  easy-going  schools,  where  in  the  recitation 
rooms  black  coats  were  numerous  as  basques,  and  opposite"  each 
demure  young  lady  at  the  dinner  table  sat  a  being  with  a  bass 
voice  and  hair  parted  on  one  side.  Then  I  wandered  away  from 
the  merry-faced  girls  of  America,  and  for  two  years  and  a  half 
studied  their  sisters  in  Europe  and  the  East.  Coming  home  full 
of  new  thoughts  and  more  earnest  purposes,  I  gathered  them 
around  me  once  again  —  the  fortunate  daughters  of  the  dear  Home 
Land  —  and  understood,  as  I  could  not  have  done  before,  what 
maketh  them  to  differ  from  the  sad-faced  multitudes  beyond  the 
seas. 


A    TRAVELER  ABROAD  79 

Let  me  then  invoke  your  patience  while  together  we  review 
the  argument  from  real  life  which  has  placed  me  on  the  affirmative 
side  of  the  tremendous  "Woman  Question" — while  we  consider 
the  lot  of  woman  beyond  the  seas,  and  then  contrast  this  with  her 
position,  present  and  prospective,  here  in  America,  and  while  we 
seek  the  reasons  of  this  amazing  difference.  Or,  as  I  like  better 
to  express  it,  let  me  try  to  picture  the  position  taken  by  the  New 
Chivalry  of  our  native  land  in  contrast  with  that  of  the  Old  Chiv- 
alry in  the  old  world.  And  by  this  term,  ' '  New  Chivalry, "  for  I  do 
not  use  it  as  a  dictionary  word,  I  mean  to  denote,  sometimes  sin- 
cerely, and  sometimes  sarcastically,  the  sex  now  dominant  upon 
this  planet. 

I  shall  ask  you,  first  of  all,  to  take  a  glance  with  me  at  the 
saddest  of  destinies  in  whose  presence  I  have  deduced  conclusions, 
the  destiny  of  an  Egyptian  woman.  It  is  a  June  day  in  the  month 
of  February.  We  are  floating  lazily  along  the  balmy  Nile,  reclin- 
ing on  the  crimson  cushions  of  our  gay  dahabeah.  As  we  gaze 
upon  the  plumy  palm  trees  and  away  over  the  desert's  yellow 
sands,  a  tall,  slight  form  comes  between  us  and  the  dreamy  hori- 
zon, passes  rapidly  along  the  bank  and  looks  weird  and  strange  in 
its  flowing  robe  of  black.  If  we  come  near  enough,  the  sight  of 
that  dusky  face,  into  which  the  misery  of  centuries  seems  crowded, 
will  smite  us  like  a  blow;  and  as  the  child  shares  always  in  the 
mother's  degradation  —  as  in  her  joy — we  shall  find  the  baby  on  this 
sad  woman's  shoulder  the  most  wretched  little  being  ever  victim- 
ized into  existence.  This  woman  is  perhaps  seventeen  years  old, 
and  has  already  passed  the  noonday  of  her  strength.  Into  this 
fate  of  marriage  was  she  sold  before  the  age  of  ten,  by  her  own 
father's  hand.  If  she  should  prove  unfaithful  to  its  vow,  honor 
would  call  upon  him,  with  imperious  voice,  to  cut  her  into  pieces 
and  consign  her  to  the  Nile.  The  history  of  this  silent,  uncom- 
plaining woman  is  a  brief  one.  She  asserts  her  ' '  rights  "  in  no 
' '  convention  " ;  she  flings  no  gauntlet  of  defiance  in  the  face  of  her 
"manifest  destiny."  She  is  the  zero-mark  upon  the  scale  of 
being,  and  her  symbol  is  a  tear.  But  upon  a  fate  so  dire  as  this 


8o  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

I  will  not  ask  you  to  look  longer.  Let  us  turn  our  eyes  westward  — 
the  Star  of  Bethlehem  moves  thither  evermore,  and  the  next  illus- 
tration of  old-world  chivalry,  though  sad  enough,  will  be  far  less 
painful  than  the  last. 

La  Signora  Sopranzi  is  a  Roman  matron  of  the  period,  with 
all  Italia's  romance  stifled  in  her  heart.  She  was  once  celebrated 
for  her  beauty,  but  she  is  already  thirty-four  years  old.  Her  hair 
is  gray,  her  gentle  eyes  are  dim,  and  of  the  glory,  long  ago 
departed,  only  those  ' '  traces  "  remain  on  which  the  novelist  lingers 
with  so  much  pathos.  Her  father  was  a  Roman  lawyer,  but  he  was 
also  Garibaldi's  friend,  and  so  the  Pope  shut  him  up  in  the  ample 
dungeons  of  St.  Angelo's.  Her  husband,  the  veriest  ne'er-do-well 
who  joined  the  beauty  of  Adonis  to  the  wiles  of  Mephistoph- 
eles,  has  gallantly  left  her  to  solve  the  problem  of  a  maintenance 
for  himself,  herself,  and  her  little  ones.  The  only  ' '  genteel " 
vocations  suited  to  her  ' '  sphere  "  are  to  keep  a  fashionable  board- 
ing-house and  give  Italian  lessons.  I  have  reason  to  congratulate 
myself  upon  the  remarkable  enterprise  she  thus  displayed,  for  in 
her  capacity  of  hostess  and  instructor,  she  introduced  me  to  an 
extensive  circle  of  acquaintances  among  the  more  intelligent  of  her 
countrywomen,  and  all  I  learned  of  them  gave  me  a  stronger  pur- 
pose of  helpfulness  toward  women.  They  were  not  innovators,  I 
promise  you!  They  had  never  heard  about  a  "college  education"; 
no  taint  of  the  new  world's  unrest  had  ever  reached  their  placid 
souls.  Indeed,  their  average  wisdom  as  to  a  great  republic  is  well 
illustrated  by  this  question,  propounded  gravely  to  me  on  more 
than  one  occasion: 

"When  our  Christoforo  Colombo  discovered  your  America  did 
he  find  many  Indians  there  as  light-complexioned  as  yourself?" 
They  knew  they  were  not  very  wise,  poor  things !  and  often  said, 
shrugging  their  shoulders  most  expressively : 

* '  We  marry  so  early,  you  know,  there  is  really  very  little  need 
that  we  should  study  much.  Indeed,  in  Italy  it  hurts  a  woman's 
prospects  to  be  troppo  istrutta  ( '  too  well  instructed '),  and  you  see 


A    TRAVELER  ABROAD  81 

this  is  a  point  we  cannot  guard  too  carefully,  for  out  of  marriage 
there  is  no  place  for  us  except  the  cloister." 

My  landlady's  daughter,  Bianca,  was  the  most  beautiful  girl 
in  Rome,  chief  city  of  fair  women.  Although  but  twelve  years 
old,  she  was  a  woman  in  her  words  and  ways.  I  was  very  fond  of 
her,  and  used  often  to  wish  I  could  lift  her  out  of  that  lifeless 
atmosphere  —  breathed  by  so  many  generations  that  almost  all  the 
oxygen  is  gone  —  and  electrify  her  with  the  air  that  blows  across 
our  Illinois  prairies.  In  one  of  our  frequent  conversations  she  thus 
stated  her  ideas  upon  a  theme  to  which  she  had  evidently  given  no 
casual  thought.  Remember  I  give  her  precise  language  —  that  of 
a  young  lady  of  twelve  —  for  my  practice  when  abroad  illustrated 
that  line  of  Burns',  "A  chiel's  amang  ye  takin'  notes ": 

' '  We  are  too  tender-hearted,  we  women  of  Italia.  Why,  I 
have  a  cousin  who  is  dying  of  grief  because  her  lover  seems  cold 
of  late.  I  laugh  at  her  and  say,  '  Ah,  bella  Margherita,  you  are  a 
little  idiot!  You  should  not  waste  yourself  thus  upon  that  silly 
Antonio.'  You  shall  see  how  I'll  behave!  I  will  never  marry  in 
this  world.  I  have  seen  too  much  unhappiness  among  these 
husbands  and  wives.  And  yet,  you  see,  'twill  not  be  easy  for  me 
to  escape, "  she  said  with  a  charming  naivete.  ' '  Why,  the  other 
evening  I  went  to  see  the  sunset  from  the  Pincian  hill  with  my 
naughty,  handsome  papa,  and  a  foolish  boy,  not  so  tall  as  I  am,  a 
mere  child,  indeed,  but  dressed  up  like  a  young  gentleman,  with 
white  vest,  gold  chain,  and  carrying  a  silly  little  cane,  whispered  to 
me,  while  papa  smoked  his  cigar  upon  the  terrace  and  I  sat  near 
the  fountain,  that  he  should  come  this  very  night  and  play  the 
mandolino  under  my  window.  But  I  turned  my  face  away,  and 
when  he  persisted  I  scowled  at  him  from  under  my  black  eyebrows 
and  just  dared  him  to  come!  I  tell  you,  Signorina,  that-I  will  not 
fall  in  love  for  a  long,  long  time  yet,  if  ever,  for  in  our  country  it 
kills  women  or  else  it  drives  them  mad.  I'm  going  to  give  Italian 
lessons,  like  my  poor  mamma,  and  in  character  singing,  to  be  a 
real  Americana  —  calm  as  the  broad  Campagna,  cold  as  the  Cata- 
combs. For  I  am  very  sad  over  the  women  of  my  country.  Life 

6 


82  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

begins  with  them  at  twelve,  and  at  twenty-five  they  are  already 
old ;  the  lights  are  out,  the  play  is  over. " 

And  yet  when  I  have  sung  the  praises  of  my  native  land  to 
beautiful  Bianca,  her  eyes  have  gleamed  with  a  new  splendor  as 
she  stood  erect  and  said :  ' '  Ah !  but  I  am  a  Roman,  and  still  to  be 
a  Roman  were  greater  than  a  king. "  (But,  mind  you,  some  bright 
American  had  taught  the  little  magpie  that!) 

Somewhat  to  the  same  purpose  as  dark-eyed  Bianca's  words 
were  those  her  pale-faced  mother  had  spoken  to  me  that  very 
morning:  "Men  cannot  be  as  good  as  we  are, "she  said,  in  her 
voice,  most  musical,  most  melancholy.  "I'm  sure  that  they  are 
not  so  dear  to  God.  We  suffer  so — our  lives  call  down  the  pity  of 
all  the  saints  in  heaven.  Life  gives  us  just  one  choice  —  to  be 
wives  or  to  be  nuns  —  and  society  sneers  at  us  so  cruelly  if  we 
neither  wear  the  marriage-ring  nor  the  consecrating  crucifix,  that 
we  are  never  happy  unless  we  are  miserable  —  and  so  we  marry! 
You  of  the  North  have  a  thousand  defences,"  she  continued, 
mournfully,  ' '  the  intellect  yields  you  so  many  pleasures,  and  your 
manner  of  life  renders  you  brave  —  so  that  you  are  seldom  at  the 
mercy  of  your  hearts.  Sometimes  I  think  there  must  be  a  sort  of 
magic,  though,  about  it  all,  and  I  have  asked  many  of  your 
countrywomen  to  let  me  have  their  talisman,  for  my  daughter's 
sake." 

One  of  my  nicest  little  friends  in  Rome  was  Greca  Caveri,  of 
Genoa,  who  had  come  with  her  father  to  witness  the  opening  of 
the  ^Ecumenical  Council.  She  was  seventeen  years  old,  and 
evinced  so  much  delight  when  I  offered  to  give  her  English  lessons 
that,  struck  with  her  youth,  I  asked  why  she  did  not  go  to  school. 
She  looked  at  me  in  much  surprise,  saying,  ' '  Does  not  the 
Signorina  know  that  I  am  superior  in  education  to  my  country- 
women generally?  My  father  is  one  of  King  Victor  Emmanuel's 
own  lawyers,  and  a  learned  man.  Moreover,  he  has  very  advanced 
ideas  about  what  a  lady  should  be  permitted  to  know,  and  so  he 
placed  me  in  the  best  school  for  girls  at  Turin.  I  completed  my 
education  there  on  my  sixteenth  birthday,  one  year  ago.  This  is 


A    TRAVELER  ABROAD  83 

what  has  kept  me  unsettled  until  I  am  so  old.  But,  then,  I  have 
learned  music,  French,  drawing  and  dancing  —  not  to  speak  of  the 
Catechism  and  the  lives  of  the  Saints." 

She  went  on  to  tell  me  that  her  dear  mamma,  whose  loss  her 
dear  papa  so  much  deplored,  had  been  three  years  married  at  her 
age,  and  then  it  dawned  on  my  dull  wits  that  she  was  one  among 
that  vast  and  noble  army  of  martyrs  who,  with  sad  face  and  lifted 
glance,  await  the  Coming  Man. 

Poor  Greca's  sad  dilemma  gave  me  long,  long  thoughts  about 
a  brave  young  country  far  away,  whose  institutions  each  year  more 
generously  endeavor  to  take  sides  with  homely  women  in  the  tug 
of  life,  and  to  compensate  thus  for  nature's  wayward  negligence. 
I  tried  to  talk  of  this  to  sweet-voiced  Greca,  and  she  listened  with 
a  flush  of  pleased  surprise,  but  soon  relapsed  into  her  normal  way 
of  thinking,  saying  as  she  shook  her  little  head:  "But  then,  dear 
friend,  you  know  we  women  have  but  one  vocation  —  there's  no 
denying  it." 

A  few  days  later,  on  New  Year's  morning,  she  ran  to  my 
room,  saying:  "Now,  I'm  going  to  try  a  sign!  As  I  go  to  the 
Vatican  with  papa,  on  this  first  day  of  the  year  1870,  I'm  going  to 
notice  whom  I  meet  first.  If  it's  a  giovinotto  (young  man),  I  shall 
surely  be  married  this  year;  if  it's  a  priest,  why,  I  shall  die,  and 
there  will  be  an  end  of  it;  but  misericordia !  if  it  should  be  an  old 
man,  I  must  restore  in  casa  another  year  still. " 

"What's  that?  "  I  asked.  The  idiom  was  new;  literally  trans- 
lated it  meant,  ' '  Stay  in  the  house. " 

<  <  Why,  don't  you  understand  ?  "  the  girl  explained,  ' '  in  my 
country,  if  a  girl  isn't  married,  she  stays  in  the  house,  and  oh!  I 
do  so  long  to  get  out  into  the  world !  " 

' '  You  say,  Signorina,  that  the  women  are  so  crazy  as  to  set 
up  for  doctors  in  your  country?  It  is  a  folly  and  a  crime.  I  won- 
der that  the  priests  don't  interfere.  Whatever  will  become  of  the 
buttons  and  the  general  housework?  " 

Thus  spake  an  elderly  Italian  dame,  the  thinning  ranks  of 


84  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

whose  own  buttons  I  was  even  then  contemplating  with  a  some- 
what startled  glance! 

' '  And  you  tell  me  there  are  fifty  thousand  lady  teachers  in 
the  United  States?  It  is  alarming!  What  will  you  come  to,  at 
last,  in  a  country  where  women  are  permitted  thus  to  usurp  author- 
ity over  the  men?  " 

I  told  her  what  a  wag  has  called  ' '  the  horrible  statistics. " 
How  that  two  millions  of  men  had  been  killed  in  our  late  war,  and 
that  hence  there  were  in  many  of  our  States  thousands  more 
women  than  men;  that  in  England  there  are  three  millions  of 
unmarried  women,  of  whom  two  millions  had  a  choice  different 
from  the  fair  Italians,  namely,  to  be  their  own  breadwinners,  or 
starve.  Indeed,  my  figures  grew  conclusive,  whereupon  she  stop- 
ped her  ears  and  exclaimed,  with  a  charming  grimace,  ' '  For  love 
of  Heaven,  don't  go  up  any  higher!  Don't  you  know  that  I  can't 
add  more  figures  than  I  have  fingers  on  this  hand?  " 

I  should  regret  to  weary  you  with  my  Italians,  but  am  tempted 
to  give  you  a  glimpse  into  the  life  of  a  Roman  old  maid;  because 
I  fancy  I  have  here  that  single  aspect  of  human  life  in  Rome 
which  neither  poet  nor  historian  has  ever  treated  —  and  because 
the  reverse  of  the  medal  has  a  lesson  for  us  also. 

She  was  a  rara  avis.  I  did  not  see  another  of  her  species  in 
all  Italy,  and  if  she  had  not  been  a  little  unbeliever  she  would  long 
ago  have  sought  the  shelter  of  a  convent,  and  borrowed  the  name 
of  some  woman-saint,  since  she  could  not  otherwise  get  rid  of  her 
own.  And  yet  hers  was  a  pretty  one,  I  thought  —  Alessandrina 
Paradisi.  She  was  one  of  those  against  whom  nature  seems  to 
have  a  pique;  yet  often,  as  I  looked  at  her  puny,  humpbacked 
figure  and  heavy  features,  it  seemed  to  me  that,  after  all,  Nature 
had  treated  her  very  much  as  legend  tells  us  Jupiter  did  the  Poet, 
who  came  to  him  complaining  that  to  Tellus  had  been  assigned 
the  earth,  and  to  Neptune  the  sea,  while  to  him  nothing  whatever 
had  been  offered,  whereupon  Jupiter  said:  "For  thee,  O  Poet,  I 
have  reserved  the  key  of  Heaven,  that  thou  mayst  come  and  go 
at  will,  and  be  my  guest. "  For  a  spirit  looked  from  the  intense 


A    TRAVELER  ABROAD  85 

dark  eyes  of  Alessandrina,  which  had  no  peer  among  her  sisters; 
an  eloquent  voice  kept  silence  behind  those  mournful  lips;  a  brain 
that  harbored  noble  thoughts  was  lying  half  asleep  under  the  mass 
of  shadowy  hair. 

Permit  this  record  of  an  evening's  talk  with  my  favorite,  Ales- 
sandrina : 

January  10,  1870.  She  has  been  to  see  me  again,  "  la  p  over  a 
piccolo,  sorella"  ("the  poor  little  sister"),  as  they  all  call  her.  It  is 
really  marvelous,  the  faculty  this  little  creature  has  of  making  me 
understand  the  rich,  soft  utterance  of  her  mother-tongue.  Tonight 
she  gave  me,  without  intending  it,  perhaps,  a  peep  into  a  place  I 
had  greatly  wished,  but  dared  not  hope  to  see  —  her  heart.  It  was 
on  this  wise.  She  was  describing  a  representation  she  had  wit- 
nessed, recently,  at  •  the  theater  in  Naples.  As  the  climax  ap- 
proached she  became  animated.  It  was  as  it  ought  to  be  always, 
the  triumph  of  virtue  and  punishment  of  vice,  or,  to  employ  her 
words  — ' '  So,  at  last,  the  husband  confessed  his  fault  to  his  forgiv- 
ing wife,  and  they  lived  in  peace  ever  after,  while  the  hateful 
woman  who  had  caused  the  mischief  was  sent  off  to  parts 
unknown."  And  here  the  little  narrator  clapped  her  hands,  say- 
ing—  "Don't  you  see,  cara  arnica,  that  it  was  a  beautiful  play?" 
When  I  asked  if,  after  witnessing  the  pageants  of  the  stage,  every- 
day life  did  not  seem  doubly  tame,  she  scowled,  shrugged  her  poor 
shoulders,  and  presto  came  my  peep  at  hearts : 

' '  Yes,  signorina,  what  you  say  is  true.  But  look  at  me !  Life 
cannot  yield  me  much  at  best.  Indeed,  it  is  so  somber,  that  it 
doesn't  matter  if  these  brilliant  contrasts  the  theater  affords  make 
that  look  a  shade  darker,  which  is  always  dark.  I  frankly  tell  you 
that  if  the  good  God  had  asked  me  I  would  have  begged  him  not 
to  trust  me  into  this  world.  But  he  did  not,  and  here  I  am,  and 
there  is  nothing  left  me  but  to  make  the  best  of  it.  I  am  twenty- 
nine  years  old,  and  by  this  time,  you  see,  I  am  accustomed  to  my 
lot.  I  quarreled  with  it  sadly,  though,  when  I  was  younger.  Ah, 
I  have  passed  some  bitter  years!  But  I've  grown  wiser  now,  and 
try  to  bring  what  happiness  I  can  to  others,  and  to  forget  myself. 


86  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Only  I  dread  lest  I  must  grow  old,  with  nobody  to  take  care  of  me. 
But  I  try  to  keep  a  young  heart,  and  so  I  give  my  thoughts  to  God's 
fair  world,  and  to  hopes  of  a  future  life.  Is  not  God  kind,  who 
gives  me  sweet  sleep,  always,  and  dreams  more  fair  than  anything 
that  I  have  seen  in  any  play  or  read  in  any  poem?  And  He  lets 
me  sleep  ten  hours  in  every  twenty-four,  and  dream  right  through 
them  all!  I  would  never  dare  to  care  for  anyone,  you  know,  and 
nobody  could  be  expected  to  find  any  charm  in  me  —  besides,  in 
Italy,  people  like  me  never  go  into  society.  And  so  Rome,  my 
native  city,  has  the  love  I  might  have  given  in  ties  more  tender. 
Ah,  shall  I  live,  I  wonder,  to  see  Rome  free?  What  would  I  not 
do  for  her,  if  I  dared?" 

But  here  her  tone  changed  to  the  mocking  spirit  that  is  more 
pitiful  than  tears :  ' '  Women  are  nothing  in  Italy,  you  know !  Think 
of  it!  I  am  twenty-nine  years  old!  my  brother  Romana  is  eight- 
een, but  on  my  father's  death,  this  boy  became  my  guardian,  and 
I  take  from  his  hand  whatever  he  chooses  to.  give  me  from  the 
estate  for  my  support,  and  do  not  murmur.  For  him  there  is  that 
independence  which  I  count  one  of  the  noblest  elements  of  charac- 
ter, for  him  there  is  brave  work  to  do ;  for  me  there  is  —  to  twirl  my 
thumbs  and  wait  to  see  if  the  next  life  can  possibly  atone  for  this. " 

Poor  child!  Let  me  hasten  to  deliver  her  from  the  limbo  to 
which  by  some  she  may  have  been  consigned.  She  never  heard 
about  a  college  education,  and  a  wider  work  with  better  pay 
for  women  who  must  earn  their  bread,  and  those  frightful  words 
' '  strong  minded  "  have  never  been  translated  into  her  sweet,  Ital- 
ian tongue. 

In  our  quest  for  illustrations  of  what  Chivalry  has  wrought 
beyond  the  seas,  the  most  ancient  and  the  most  poetic  civilizations 
have  yielded  us  their  lessons;  let  us  pass  on  to  interrogate  the 
most  luxurious.  We  shall  soon  see  how  differently  they  do  these 
things  in  France.  In  Egypt,  as  we  have  observed,  the  husband 
buys  his  wife;  in  Paris,  by  strange  condition,  it  is  the  wife  who 
buys  her  husband,  and  he  knows  his  value,  be  assured!  In  proof 
of  this,  let  me  give  a  conversation  I  chanced  to  have  with  an  intel- 


A    TRAVELER  ABROAD  87 

ligent  Parisian  lady,  who,  starting  out  in  life  without  sufficient  cap- 
ital, had  made  no  matrimonial  investment  up  to  the  ripe  age  of 
forty-four. 

' '  I  am  much  concerned, "  she  said,  ' '  for  my  friend,  Madame 
D.,  who  is  just  now  doing  her  best  to  marry  off  her  daughter;  and 
it  is  high  time,  too,  for  the  girl  is  already  eighteen.  But  it  will  not 
be  an  easy  task,  I  fear,  for  she  has  not  a  tempting  dowry,  and  but 
few  personal  charms." 

1 '  How  will  they  begin  their  operations  ?  "  I  inquired. 

' '  Oh,  the  parents  will  say  tout  franchement  (quite  frankly)  to 
their  friends,  '  find  me  a  husband  for  my  daughter, '  and  the 
friends,  knowing  that  one  good  turn  deserves  another,  will  beat  up 
for  recruits,  and  will,  perhaps,  find  a  young  man  who  is  deemed 
suitable,  and  who  is  willing  'to  consider  the  project,'  at  least. 
Then,  as  if  by  chance  —  for  we  are  a  people  of  quite  too  much 
delicacy  to  give  a  business  air  to  proceedings  of  this  nature  "  —  she 
explained  with  true  French  vivacity,  ' '  then,  as  if  by  chance,  the 
parties  will  meet  in  the  picture  gallery  of  the  Luxembourg,  or  at 
an  open-air  concert  in  the  Champs  Elysees.  The  young  people 
are  now  introduced,  while  the  old  ones  look  on  sharply,  to  witness 
the  effect.  After  several  minutes  of  casual  conversation,  they  sep- 
arate. The  young  man  says  to  his  friends,  '  She  pleases  me, '  or 
'She  pleases  me  not,'  and  upon  this  turns  the  decision." 

"But  what  about  the  girl?  "  I  pursued  innocently. 

"Oh,  the  girl?  She  is  charmingly  submissive.  She  simpers 
and  makes  a  courtesy,  and  says :  '  As  you  please,  dear  parents, 
you  know  what  is  for  my  good  far  better  than  I ' —  so  glad  is  she 
to  marry  upon  any  terms,  it  is  such  a  release"  The  lady  then 
went  on  to  say,  ' '  If  the  girl  has  been  so  fortunate  as  to  '  please ' 
the  young  man,  and  if  his  friends  pronounce  her  adequate,  the 
necessary  papers  are  made  out;  she  receives  half-a-dozen  calls 
from  her  fiance  in  the  presence  of  her  mother;  he  sends  her  a 
huge  bouquet  daily  for  about  three  weeks,  and  '  like  the  swell  of 
some  sweet  tune, '  the  courtship  merges  in  the  wedding  day. " 

Will  you  believe  it?     I  was  stupid  enough  (but  then  'twas 


88  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

because  of  the  interest  I  take  in  girls)  after  all  this  to  ask:  "And 
what  about  love?  "  How  she  laughed !  —  that  ' '  lady  of  a  certain 
age  "-  —  as  the  French  say,  avoiding  harsher  epithets. 

' '  Dear  Mademoiselle, "  was  her  voluble  reply,  ' '  that  question 
tells  the  whole  story!  You  are  Americaine,  you  have  read  those 
pretty  fictions  of  Miss  Dinah  Mulock,  and  you  have  not  lived  very 
long  abroad. " 

Then  she  explained  to  me  how,  established  in  her  new  home, 
the  young  wife  tastes  her  first  liberty.  Her  husband  goes  his  way 
to  theater  and  club,  and  she  goes  hers,  often  learning  what  love  is 
(since  you  insist)  from  another  than  he.  Her  children  she  puts 
away  from  her  at  an  early  age ;  the  girls  in  a  convent,  the  boys  in  a 
Lycee,  and  when  they  emerge  from  there,  they  repeat  the  scene  of 
their  parents'  courtship  and  marriage  —  the  sons,  after  several  years 
of  profligate  life;  the  daughters,  after  a  brief  period  of  espionage 
at  home.  And  so  the  drama  goes  from  age  to  age. 

In  the  good  old  Fatherland  the  relations  of  men  and  women 
are  hardly  less  irrational  than  in  France.  Young  gentlemen  never 
visit  young  ladies,  and  the  latter  are  rigidly  prohibited  from  all 
social  intercourse  with  them  except  in  presence  of  their  parents 
and  guardians  and  at  the  public  balls.  How  they  ever  arrive  at  an 
engagement  is  one  of  the  mysteries  that  the  uninitiated  desire  to 
look  into;  but,  strange  to  say,  that  stupendous  crisis  does  at  last 
occur.  Whereupon  the  friends  of  the  parties  are  promptly  noti- 
fied, and  it  is  customary  to  call  upon  the  fortunate  maiden  who  has 
staked  her  all  upon  a  throw,  and  won.  With  the  young  gentle- 
man —  a  gallant  knight  of  the  old  chivalry  —  it  is  quite  a  different 
matter.  His  good  fortune  consists  principally  in  the  amount  of 
very  hard  cash  that  rewards  the  sacrifice  of  his  liberty.  He  has 
paid  the  sex  a  great  compliment  in  the  person  of  his  betrothed, 
which  she  will  appropriately  acknowledge  on  her  own  and  their 
bel  If.  Not  that  he  means  to  be  exacting  —  oh,  no  !  He  is  a 
downright  good-natured  fellow,  and  will  require  in  return  nothing 
more  than  —  unconditional  surrender  to  his  will  from  this  time  forth 
' '  until  death  do  us  part. " 


A    TRAVELER  ABROAD  89 

A  friend,  long  a  resident  in  Berlin,  writes  me  as  follows: 

' '  In  Germany,  girls  exist  so  exclusively  for  marriage,  that  the 
linen  for  her  bridal  trousseau  is  collected  from  the  time  a  girl  is 
born.  At  family  Christmas  festivals  contributions  to  this  outfit 
form  the  prominent  feature  of  the  gifts  to  girls,  and  being  ques- 
tioned, they  will  reply  without  the  least  embarrassment:  '  Oh,  that's 
for  my  ausstener — wedding  outfit.'  German  girls  marry  principally 
for  greater  social  freedom.  Those  of  the  upper  classes  care  less 
for  this,  and  are  slower  to  change  their  estate  in  life." 

In  ' '  Merrie  England  "  there  is  more  freedom,  but  Thackeray's 
incomparable  satires,  which  denounce,  "more  in  sadness  than  in 
anger, "  the  customs  that  preside  over  marriages  in  high  life,  are  as 
true  today  as  when  he  wrote  them.  To  my  delight  I  found  Thack- 
eray reverenced  in  England  as  we  reverence  Bryant,  and  loved  as 
we  love  Whittier;  but  to  my  grief  they  told  me  the  shades  in  his 
sad  pictures  are  not  dark  enough.  You  remember  the  episode  in 
that  noblest  of  his  books  ' '  The  Newcomes, "  about  the  queenly 
Ethel,  whose  aristocratic  grandmamma  is  bound  to  marry  her  to 
Lord  Farintosh,  in  spite  of  her  repugnance  and  her  protestations, 
and  how  Ethel  is  made  to  pursue  the  noble  lord  through  every  lane 
of  life  until  he  lays  his  coronet  before  her?  You  remember  ho\v 
this  compromised  young  woman,  visiting  an  art  collection  and  see- 
ing a  green  card  with  the  word  ' '  Sold  "  attached  to  a  picture  there, 
slyly  carries  it  off,  fastens  it  in  front  of  her  white  muslin  frock,  and 
thus  appears  at  dinner.  When  asked  what  this  queer  fancy  means, 
she  makes  the  old  dowager  a  profound  courtesy,  saying,  "Why, 
grandmamma,  I  am  a  tableau  vivant  —  living  picture. "  ' '  Where- 
upon,"  says  Thackeray,  "  the  old  lady,  jumping  up  on  her  crooked 
stick  with  immense  agility,  tore  the  card  out  of  Ethel's  bosom,  and 
very  likely  would  have  boxed  her  ears,  but  that  just  then  the 
Marquis  of  Farintosh,  himself,  came  in.  '  But,  after  his  departure, 
there  was,  I  promise  you,  a  pretty  row  in  the  building,'  relates 
Ethel  afterward." 

Going  to  Hyde  Park  at  the  fashionable  hour,  one  sees  many  a 
poor  Ethel  who  needs  no  green  ticket  on  her  dress  to  tell  the  story 


90  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

of  her  barter.  One's  heart  aches  at  the  thought  of  "sweet  bells 
jangling, "  whose  music  might  have  filled  so  many  lives  with  sooth- 
ing melody.  For  Hyde  Park  is  the  scene  —  as  an  English  gentle- 
men express  it  in  language  that  grates  harshly  on  our  ears  —  "of 
the  richest  and  most  shameful  marriage  market  in  the  world." 
' '  Men  stand  by  the  rails, "  he  says,  ' '  criticising  with  perfect  impar- 
tiality and  equal  freedom,  while  women  drive  slowly  past,  for  sale 
in  marriage,  with  their  careful  mothers  at  their  side,  to  reckon  the 
value  of  biddings  and  prevent  the  lots  from  going  off  below  the 
reserved  price.  Instinctively  you  listen  for  the  auctioneer  with  his 
'  going  —  going  —  gone ! ' ' 

Listen  to  the  moral  drawn  by  the  same  Christian  Englishman 
under  his  frightful  picture: 

"Such  is  the  pitch  at  which  we  have  arrived  by  teaching 
women  that  marriage  is  their  whole  duty" 

I  turn  with  grateful  pride  from  these  sad  pictures  of  the  Old 
World,  to  the  glowing  colors  of  the  New.  The  difference  between 
them  has  been  often  figured  to  my  fancy  by  that  between  the 
mystic,  melancholy  sunsets  behind  Rome's  sad  Campagna,  and. 
their  brilliant  pageantry,  as  they  light  up  the  west  from  the  prairies 
of  my  own  Illinois.  I  see  what  is  noblest  in  the  manhood  of 
America  rallying  like  St.  George  of  old,  to  fight  the  Dragon,  while 
firm  and  brave  rings  out  their  manly  war  cry,  claiming  ' '  Fair  play 
for  the  weaker  "  in  life's  solemn  fight.  Do  you  wonder  if  this  con- 
trast set  me  thinking  about  the  New  World's  Chivalry  ?  or  if,  the 
more  I  studied  the  movements  of  this  matchless  age,  the  more 
clearly  I  saw  that  it  can  give  a  Roland  for  an  Oliver,  till  History 
calls  off  its  last  heroic  name. 

The  Knights  of  the  Old  Chivalry  gave  woman  the  empty  husk 
of  flattery;  those  of  the  New  offer,  instead,  the  wholesome  kernel 
of  just  criticism;  the  Knights  of  the  Old  Chivalry  drank  our  health 
in  flowing  bumpers ;  those  of  the  New  invite  us  to  sit  down  beside 
them  at  the  banquet  of  truth. 

"By  my  lady's  bright  eyes,"  was  the  watchword  of  the  Old; 
"Fair  play  for  the  weaker,"  is  the  manly  war  cry  of  the  New! 


A    TRAVELER  ABROAD  91 

Talk  about  the  chivalry  of  ancient  days !  Go  to,  ye  mediaeval  ages, 
and  learn  what  the  word  meaneth!  Behold  the  sunny  afternoon  of 
this  nineteenth  century  of  grace,  wherein  we  have  the  spectacle, 
not  of  lances  tilted  to  defend  the  prestige  of  ' '  my  lady's  beauty, " 
by  swaggering  knights  who  could  not  write  their  names,  but  the 
noblest  men  of  the  world's  foremost  race,  placing  upon  the  brows 
of  those  most  dear  to  them,  above  the  wreath  of  Venus,  the  helmet 
of  Minerva,  and  leading  into  broader  paths  of  knowledge  and 
achievement,  the  fair  divinities  who  preside  over  their  homes  ! 


J' 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    CHOICE    OF    A    CAREER 

PON  the  summits  of  lofty  mountain  ranges  which  serve 
as  the  great  watersheds  of  our  country,  the  merest 
apparent  accident  —  as  a  puff  of  wind  or  the  encounter- 
ing of  a  chance  resistant  force  in  tree  or  shrub  —  determines 
whether  a  particular  raindrop  shall  lend  itself  to  the  streams 
which  flow  eastward,  or  whether  it  shall  become  a  part  of  the 
mighty  waters  which  sweep  toward  west  or  south.  It  is  an  old 
figure  and  yet  one  which  comes  continually  to  mind  in  considering 
the  crowning  epoch  in  the  life  of  Frances  E.  Willard.  So  little 
do  we  comprehend  those  mysterious  forces  which  shape  human 
destiny  that  even  now,  after  the  lapse  of  twenty-five  years,  we 
find  ourselves  praising  God  as  we  think  how  slight  a  thing  might 
seemingly  have  affected  her  decision,  and  changed  the  trend  of 
her  entire  life.  ' '  Had  she  accepted  the  educational  position  a  few 
would  today  bless  the  memory  of  a  gifted  teacher;  the  other  was 
accepted,  and  today  a  world  blesses  God  for  Frances  Willard." 
Truly  a  Hand  was  on  the  helm  other  than  hers;  the  eternal  forces 
had  her  life  plan  in  their  mighty  onward  sweep.  The  raindrop  of 
the  individual  life  gave  itself  gladly  to  that  side  of  the  mountain 
range  whence  issue  the  streams  of  beneficent  reform,  and  so  surely 
was  the  gift  of  God's  ordering  that  almost  immediately  the  stream 
itself  took  on  the  character  of  her  living,  and  her  whole  after-life 
became  to  unnumbered  thousands  like  ' '  a  spring  of  water  whose 
waters  fail  not." 

Who  could  have  prophesied  in  1874  that  Miss  Willard  was  to 
be  the  leader  of  the  temperance  movement  in  America  ?     Dean  of 

92 


CHOICE   OF  A    CAREER  93 

the  Northwestern  Female  College  and  Professor  of  Esthetics  in 
the  Northwestern  University,  in  her  were  embodied  much  of 
nineteenth  century  civilization  and  culture. 

The  Shakespeare  and  the  musical  clubs  knew  her,  as  did 
meetings  for  the  discussion  of  Oriental  and  Greek  thought  and  all 
the  delightful  dominating  external  culture  of  the  mind  of  the  day. 
She  was  admired  by  the  great,  loved  where  love  was  a  pride,  lead- 
ing, active,  regnant,  and  may  have  seemed  in  danger  of  being  for- 
ever bound  by  outward  success  and  applause.  But  God  had  long 
before  planted  in  her  soul  in  abundant  measure  a  store  of  vital, 
childlike  love  and  worship  to  remain  there  as  a  germ  capable  of 
responding  to  the  loving  warmth  of  His  own  radiant  energy  when- 
ever the  hour  of  the  heart's  springtime  should  come.  She  herself 
has  quoted  George  Meredith's  saying,  "A  check  to  the  pride  of  a 
boy  will  frequently  divert  him  to  the  paths  where  lie  his  subtlest 
powers,"  adding  with  winsome  humor,  "and  girls  are  sometimes 
very  boyish." 

God  had  larger  purposes  for  her  than  she  knew,  and  as  she 
approached  the  widening  yet  lonely  path  of  philanthropy  up  which 
she  was  to  toil,  He  gently  and  wisely  prepared  her  for  the  change 
by  opening  in  her  thoughts  new  channels  of  interest  in  which  all 
the  currents  of  her  life  were  soon  to  flow  with  a  deeper,  purer, 
stronger  tide  than  the  old  channels  had  ever  known.  It  was  the 
year  of  the  Woman's  Temperance  Crusade;  there  had  been  no 
unusual  activity  in  temperance  circles,  but  suddenly,  without  warn- 
ing, the  crusade  began.  As  if  by  magic  armies  of  women  — 
delicate,  cultured,  home  women  —  filled  the  streets  of  the  cities 
and  towns  of  Ohio,  going  in  pathetic  procession  from  the  door  of 
the  home  to  that  of  the  saloon,  singing,  praying,  pleading  with  the 
rumsellers  with  all  the  eloquence  of  their  mother-hearts.  The 
movement  ran  like  wildfire  over  the  land,  breaking  out  here,  there 
and  everywhere  without  known  concert  of  action.  ' '  It  was  like 
the  fires  we  used  to  kindle  on  the  western  prairies,"  Miss  Willard 
said ;  ' '  a  match  and  a  wisp  of  dry  grass  were  all  that  were  needed, 
and  behold  the  magnificent  spectacle  of  a  prairie  on  fire  sweeping 


94  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

across  the  landscape,  swift  as  a  thousand  untrained  steeds  and 
no  more  to  be  captured  than  a  hurricane. "  All  this  could  not  fail 
to  arouse  Miss  Willard's  attention.  She  was  moved  to  help  them, 
although  she  might  not  leave  her  own  place  to  do  it.  All  through 
this  battle  of  Home  versus  Saloon  she  read  every  word  she  could 
find  about  ' '  that  whirlwind  of  the  Lord  which  in  fifty  days  swept 
the  liquor  traffic  out  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  towns  and  villages." 
She  took  pains  to  let  her  sentiments  and  her  sympathies  be  widely 
known,  giving  to  her  pupils  in  rhetoric  such  novel  composition  sub- 
jects as  "John  B.  Gough, "  "NealDow"  and  " Does  Prohibition 
Prohibit?" 

Her  brother,  Oliver  A.  Willard,  then  editor  of  the  Chicago 
Evening  Mail,  gave  favorable  and  full  reports  of  the  Crusading 
bands,  saying  privately  to  his  sister,  ' '  I  shall  speak  just  as  well  of 
the  women  as  I  dare  to" — "a  most  characteristic  editorial  remark, 
though  more  frequently  acted  out  than  uttered ! "  And  to  the 
young  Dean  came  this  illumination :  "It  occurred  to  me,  strange  to 
say,  for  the  first  time,  that  I  ought  to  work  for  the  good  cause  just 
where  I  was  —  that  everybody  ought.  Thus  I  first  received  '  the 
arrest  of  thought '  concerning  which,  in  a  thousand  different  towns, 
I  have  since  then  tried  to  speak,  and  I  believe  that  in  this  simple 
change  of  personal  attitude,  from  passive  to  aggressive,  lies  the 
only  force  that  can  free  this  land  from  the  drink  habit  and  the 
liquor  traffic.  It  would  be  like  dynamite  under  the  saloon  if,  just 
where  he  is,  the  minister  would  begin  active  work  against  it ;  if,  just 
where  he  is,  the  teacher  would  instruct  his  pupils ;  if,  just  where  he 
is,  the  voter  would  dedicate  his  ballot  to  this  movement;  and  so 
on,  through  the  shining  ranks  of  the  great  powers  that  make  for 
righteousness,  from  father  and  mother  to  kindergarten  toddlers,  if 
each  were  this  day  doing  what  each  could,  just  where  he  is. " 

The  wave  of  the  Crusade  struck  Chicago;  a  band  of  women 
visited  the  City  Council  to  petition  for  enforcement  of  the  Sunday- 
closing  law.  They  were  treated  with  mocking  slight  and  rudely 
jostled  on  the  street  by  a  band  of  rough  men,  half  out  for  a  lark, 
half  ugly.  This  was  in  March,  1874.  Miss  Willard  was  thor- 


CHOICE  OF  A    CAREER  95 

oughly  aroused.  ' '  Treat  any  woman  with  contumely,  and  as  soon 
as  she  hears  of  it  every  other  woman  in  the  world  worth  anything 
feels  as  if  she  also  were  hurt."  Busy  as  she  was,  it  was  not  many 
days  before  she  found  time  publicly  to  declare  this  as  ' '  every- 
body's war,"  and  to  assure  the  temperance  women  she  was  with 
them  heart  and  mind  and  hand.  She  made  a  second  speech,  and 
a  third,  so  successfully  that  she  was  in  demand  at  temperance 
gatherings.  Her  heart  warmed  to  the  work.  ' '  To  serve  such  a 
cause  would  be  utterly  enthralling, "  she  exclaimed,  "  if  I  only  had 
more  time  —  if  I  were  more  free!  "  Within  three  months  she  was 
free,  perfectly  free,  to  choose,  to  do,  or  to  leave  undone,  to  con- 
tinue work  along  her  own  lines  or  to  go  into  the  new  temperance 
field,  differences  of  opinion  between  herself  and  the  President 
of  the  University  on  matters  of  government  having  led  to  her 
resignation  from  the  position  of  Dean  of  the  Woman's  College. 
In  the  sleepless  night  that  followed  there  came  a  heavenly  vision  to 
which  she  was  not  disobedient,  bringing  to  her  soul  the  tranquil 
knowledge  that  ' '  the  Lord  is  real,  His  whole  nature  is  Love. " 

Miss  Willard's  interest  in  the  Crusade  soon  carried  her  to  the 
East  to  study  the  temperance  movement  and  to  confer  with  its 
leaders  in  New  York  City,  Boston  and  Portland.  She  went  down 
into  the  slums  of  New  York,  saw  its  mission  temperance  work, 
and  there  the  fire  of  pity  that  never  left  her  was  kindled  in  her 
soul  for  the  physical  and. mental  misery  that  intemperance  causes 
among  the  poor.  She  attended  the  first  Gospel  temperance  camp 
meeting  known  in  temperance  annals,  at  Old  Orchard,  Maine, 
listened  to  the  story  of  the  ' '  Maine  Law  "  from  the  lips  of  Gen. 
Neal  Dow,  and  first  met  Mrs.  L.  M.  N.  Stevens,  of  Portland,  ever 
after  to  be  her  strong  and  dependable  coadjutor.  It  was  in  a  Port- 
land hotel,  while  she  wondered  where  money  was  to  come  from  to 
meet  her  own  and  her  mother's  expenses,  that  she  opened  the 
Bible  lying  on  the  table  and  read  the  verse  that  ' '  clinched  her 
faith  for  this  difficult  emergency":  "Trust  in  the  Lord  and  do 
good;  so  shalt  thou  dwell  in  the  land,  and  verily  thou  shalt 
be  fed." 


96  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Going  to  Boston  for  further  counsel  and  bending  all  her  ener- 
gies to  find  "where  to  stand  within  the  charmed  circle  of  the 
temperance  reform,"  she  waited  and  watched  for  providential  inti- 
mations. Meanwhile  many  and  varied  offers  came  from  the  edu- 
cational field,  tempting  in  respect  to  their  wide  outlook  and  large 
promise  of  financial  relief.  "In  this  dilemma,"  so  we  read  her 
record,  ' '  I  consulted  my  friends  as  to  their  sense  of  my  duty. 
Every  one  of  them,  including  my  dear  mother  and  my  revered 

counsellor,    Bishop  S ,    united   in   the  decision   that  he  thus 

expressed:  "  If  you  were  not  dependent  on  your  own  exertions  for 
the  supply  of  current  needs  I  would  say  be  a  philanthropist,  but  of 
all  work  the  temperance  work  pays  least  and  you  cannot  afford  to 
take  it  up.  I  therefore  counsel  you  to  remain  in  your  chosen  and 
successful  field  of  the  higher  education. "  ' '  No  one, "  she  contin- 
ues, "stood  by  me  in  the  preference  I  freely  expressed  to  join  the 
crusade  women  except  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore,  who  sent  me  a 
letter  full  of  enthusiasm  for  the  new  line  of  work  and  predicted 
success  for  me  therein." 

While  visiting  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  Miss  Willard 
received  two  letters  on  the  sa:me  day.  The  first  was  from  Rev.  Dr. 
Van  Norman,  of  New  York  City,  offering  her  the  position  of  Lady 
Principal  of  his  elegant  school  for  young  women  with  a  salary  of 
$2,400  and  such  duties  as  she  might  choose.  The  other  was  from 
Mrs.  Louise  S.  Rounds,  of  Chicago,  begging  her  to  take  the 
presidency  of  the  Chicago  branch  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union,  while  she  confessed  its  present  weakness  of  organ- 
ization and  its  financial  inadequacy.  ' '  It  has  come  to  me, " 
said  Mrs.  Rounds,  "  as  I  believe  from  the  Lord,  that  you  ought  to 
be  our  president."  Our  temperance  Greatheart  did  not  hesitate; 
the  offer  of  Dr  Van  Norman  was  declined,  that  of  Mrs.  Rounds 
accepted.  This  was  the  real  election  of  Frances  E.  Willard's 
life  —  this  was  her  choice  of  a  career. 

' '  No  words  can  adequately  characterize  the  change  wrought 
in  my  life  by  this  decision, "  wrote  our  leader.  ' '  Instead  of  peace, 
I  was  to  participate  in  war;  instead  of  the  sweetness  of  home, 


ANNA  A.  GORDON 


CHOICE   OF  A    CAREER 


97 


never  more  dearly  loved  than  I  had  loved  it,  I  was  to  become  a 
wanderer  on  the  face  of  the  earth;  instead  of  libraries,  I  was  to 
frequent  public  halls  and  railway  cars;  instead  of  scholarly  and 
cultured  men,  I  was  to  see  the  dregs  of  saloon  and  gambling  house 
and  haunt  of  shame.  But  women  who  were  among  the  fittest 
Gospel  survivals  were  to  be  my  comrades;  little  children  were  to 
be  gathered  from  near  and  from  far  in  the  Loyal  Temperance 
Legion,  and  whoever  keeps  such  company  should  sing  a  psalm  of 
joy,  solemn  as  it  is  sweet.  Hence  I  have  felt  that  great  promotion 
came  to  me  whsn  I  was  counted  worthy  to  be  a  worker  in  the 
organized  Crusade  for  '  God  and  Home  and  Native  Land. '  Tem- 
porary differences  may  seem  to  separate  some  of  us  for  awhile, 
but  I  believe  with  all  my  heart  that  farther  on  we  shall  be  found 
walking  once  more  side  by  side." 


^**a 


CHAPTER   VIII 

ORGANIZER   AND    LEADER    OF   THE    WOMAN'S    CHRISTIAN    TEMPERANCE 

UNION 

N  her  homeward  journey  the  heaven-born  leader  of  the 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  was  to  receive  her 
Crusade  baptism.  It  was  in  Pittsburg.  Miss  Willard's 
vivid  description  of  the  scene  tells  us  — 

' '  The  Crusade  had  lingered  in  this  dim-colored  city  well  nigh 
a  year,  and  when  I  visited  my  old  friends  at  the  Female  College  I 
spoke  of  it  with  enthusiasm,  and  of  the  women  who  were,  as  I 
judged  from  a  morning  paper,  still  engaged  in  it  here.  They 
looked  upon  me  with  astonishment  when  I  proposed  to  seek  out 
those  women  and  go  with  them  to  the  saloons;  but,  too  polite  to 
disappoint  me,  they  had  me  piloted  by  some  of  the  factotums  of  the 
place  to  the  headquarters  of  the  Crusade.  Here  I  was  warmly 
welcomed,  and  soon  found  myself  walking  down  street  arm  in  arm 
with  a  young  teacher  from  the  public  school,  who  said  she  had  a 
habit  of  coming  in  to  add  one  to  the  procession  when  her  day's 
duties  were  over. 

' '  We  paused  in  front  of  Sheffner's  saloon,  on  Market  street. 
The  ladies  ranged  themselves  along  the  curbstone,  for  they  had 
been  forbidden  in  anywise  to  incommode  the  passers-by,  being 
dealt  with  much  more  strictly  than  a  drunken  man  or  a  heap 
of  dry-goods  boxes  would  be.  At  a  signal  from  our  gray-haired 
leader,  a  sweet- voiced  woman  began  to  sing,  'Jesus  the  water  of 
life  will  give, '  all  our  voices  soon  blending  in  the  song.  I  think  it 
was  the  most  novel  spectacle  that  I  recall.  There  stood  women  of 
undoubted  religious  devotion  and  the  highest  character,  most  of 

98 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  99 

them  crowned  with  the  glory  of  gray  hairs.  Along  the  stony  pave- 
ment of  that  stoniest  of  cities  rumbled  the  heavy  wagons,  many  of 
them  carriers  of  beer;  between  us  and  the  saloon  in  front  of  which 
we  were  drawn  up  in  line,  passed  the  motley  throng,  almost  every 
man  lifting  his  hat,  and  even  little  newsboys  doing  the  same.  It 
was  American  manhood's  tribute  to  Christianity  and  to  woman- 
hood, and  it  was  significant  and  full  of  pathos.  The  leader  had 
already  asked  the  saloonkeeper  if  we  might  enter,  and  he  had 
declined,  else  the  prayer  meeting  would  have  occurred  inside  his 
door.  A  sorrowful  old  lady,  whose  only  son  had  gone  to  ruin 
through  that  very  death-trap,  knelt  on  the  cold,  moist  pavement 
and  offered  a  broken-hearted  prayer,  while  all  our  heads  were 
bowed. 

"At  a  signal  we  moved  on,  and  the  next  saloonkeeper  per- 
mitted us  to  enter.  I  had  no  more  idea  of  the  inward  appearance 
of  a  saloon  than  if  there  had  been  no  such  place  on  earth.  I 
knew  nothing  of  its  high,  heavily  corniced  bar,  its  barrels  with  the 
ends  all  pointed  toward  the  looker-on,  each  barrel  being  furnished 
with  a  faucet;  its  shelves  glittering  with  decanters  and  cut  glass, 
its  floors  thickly  strewn  with  sawdust,  and  here  and  there  a  table 
with  chairs  —  nor  of  its  abundant  fumes,  sickening  to  healthful 
nostrils.  The  tall,  stately  lady  who  led  us,  placed  her  Bible  on 
the  bar  and  read  a  psalm,  whether  hortatory  or  imprecatory  I  do 
not  remember,  but  the  spirit  of  these  crusaders  was  so  gentle  I 
think  it  must  have  been  the  former.  Then  we  sang  '  Rock  of 
Ages '  as  I  thought  I  had  never  heard  it  sung  before,  with  a  tender 
confidence  to  the  height  of  which  one  does  not  rise  in  the  easy- 
going, regulation  prayer  meeting,  and  then  one  of  the  older 
women  whispered  to  me  softly  that  the  leader  wished  to  know  if  I 
would  pray.  It  was  strange,  perhaps,  but  I  felt  not  the  least 
reluctance  as  I  knet  on  the  sawdust  floor,  with  a  group  of  ear- 
nest hearts  around  me,  and  behind  them,  filling  every  corner  and 
extending  out  into  the  street,  a  crowd  of  unwashed,  unkempt, 
hard-looking  drinking  men.  I  was  conscious  that  perhaps  never  in 
my  life,  save  beside  my  sister  Mary's  dying  bed,  had  I  prayed  as 


ioo  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

truly  as  I  did  then.  This  was  my  Crusade  baptism.  The  next 
day  I  went  on  to  the  West,  and  within  a  week  had  been  made 
president  of  the  Chicago  W.  C.  T.  U." 

The  story  of  Miss  Willard's  early  Chicago  work  reads  like  a 
romance.  Into  it  she  flung  herself  with  the  ardor  of  a  St.  Francis 
d'Assisi.  She  made  the  little  great,  the  weak  a  power.  She 
who  had  studied  books,  now  studied  humanity.  Delighting  in 
music  and  in  art,  she  gave  herself  with  abandon  to  scenes  the  world 
would  consider  the  reverse  of  artistic.  For  music  she  now  had 
Gospel  hymns,  not  always  rendered  effectively  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  musical  critic,  but  no  grand  oratorio  £ould  have  thrilled  her 
soul  as  did  those  hymns  sung  by  men  upoii  whose  lips  the  praises 
of  God  were  like  the  unaccustomed  lispings  of  babes.  Nor  was 
it  ease  or  the  promptings  of  cultured  taste  alone  which  Frances 
Willard  sacrificed;  she  endured  real  hardship,  the  prosaic  hardship 
of  poverty,  and  even  at  times  of  hungeV.  So  determined  was  she 
in  her  heroic  soul  to  be  led  of  God  alone  that  she  would  not  suffer 
the  women  of  the  Union  to  speak  of  compensation,  and  they, 
thinking  that  in  some  unknown  way  abundant  means  were  supplied 
her,  accepted  her  service  all  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  the  slender 
figure  which  stood  before  them  day  after  day  had  often  walked 
many  miles  because  she  did  not  possess  the  ' '  prerequisite  nickel 
for  car  fare, "  or  that  she  came  to  them  hungry  because  she  had  no 
money  with  which  to  buy  bread. 

When  Madam  Willard's  common  sense  prevailed  and  the  sit- 
uation was  revealed,  their  regret  partook  almost  of  the  nature  of 
remorse  and  a  modest  but  adequate  salary  was  immediately  pro- 
vided. When  persuaded  that  her  position  was  no  longer  tenable, 
Miss  Willard  did  not  regret  the  experience  of  those  months,  which 
gave  her  an  insight  into  human  hearts  and  a  revelation  of  human 
needs.  Often  as  she  went  about  the  great  city,  searching  for  the 
friendless  and  forgotten,  she  had  said  to  herself,  "I  am  a  better 
friend  than  you  dream,  I  know  more  about  you  than  you  think,  for, 
bless  God,  I  am  hungry  too. "  Thus  early  in  her  temperance  career 
we  catch  the  blended  strains  of  tender  sympathy  and  resolute 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  101 

determination,  the  strong  notes  of  the  harmony  that  rang  tnrough 
all  her  after  life. 

From  the  outset  of  her  Chicago  work  it  was  apparent  that  a 
wider  sphere  was  awaiting  her,  and  when  the  organizing  convention 
of  the  Illinois  W.C.T.U.  was  held  in  Springfield  in  October,  1874, 
she  was  elected  to  the  office  of  corresponding  secretary.  In  August 
of  the  same  year  there  had  gone  forth  from  Chautauqua,  New 
York,  a  call  to  the  women  who  had  been  interested  in  the  Woman's 
Temperance  Crusade  to  meet  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  November  18-20, 
for  the  purpose  of  effecting  a  permanent  national  organization. 
Thither  went  Frances  Willard  to  clasp  hands  with  those  whose  very 
names  had  thrilled  her  heart  as  she  had  read  of  their  brave  warfare 
for  the  protection  of  the  home.  They  recognized  in  her  a  most 
valuable  ally  and  she  was  placed  upon  the  Committee  on  Resolu- 
tions, one  of  the  most  important  positions  within  the  gift  of  the 
convention.  In  this  capacity  she  wrote  the  famous  resolution 
which  was  in  its  essence  her  own  spirit  and  the  ruling  principle  of 
her  life : 

Resolved,  That,  recognizing  that  our  cause  is  and  will  be  combated  by 
mighty,  determined  and  relentless  foes,  we  will,  trusting  in  Him  who  is  Prince  of 
Peace,  meet  argument  with  argument,  misjudgment  with  patience,  denunciation 
with  kindness,  and  all  our  difficulties  and  dangers  with  prayer. 

Although  Miss  Willard  had  been  elected  to  the  office  of  cor- 
responding secretary,  she  might  without  doubt  have  been  made 
president  had  she  not  promptly  refused  to  have  her  name  used, 
saying  that  she  preferred  to  learn  of  those  who  were  veterans  in 
this  warfare  rather  than  assume  for  herself  a  position  of  such 
responsibility. 

Within  a  few  brief  months  after  her  choice  of  a  career  we  find 
Miss  Willard's  guiding  hand  upon  three  distinctively  important 
positions  in  local,  State  and  national  Unions.  Her  history  in  those 
days  made  itself  with  startling  rapidity.  When  once  the  hour  had 
found  the  woman  it  was  as  if  she  had  been  from  the  beginning  of 
her  life  filling  the  place,  her  fitness  for  which  was  so  universally 
recognized.  Five  years  later,  in  1879,  she  was  elected  to  the  pres- 


102  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

idency  of  the  National  Union  and  her  every  heart-beat  was  from 
that  day  given  to  the  best  interests  of  the  organization  which  was 
far  dearer  to  her  than  life  itself.  Indeed,  the  National  Union  was 
bounded  by  the  compass  of  her  great  thought,  warmed  by  the  sun- 
shine of  her  all-embracing  love  and  nourished  by  her  very  life- 
blood.  Rarely  has  the  world  seen  so  complete  a  death  of  self,  so 
far  as  personal  aims  are  concerned,  or  so  glorious  a  resurrection  of 
the  true  self  in  the  lives  of  countless  others. 

While  corresponding  secretary  of  the  National  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  in  the  winter  of  1877,  Miss  Willard 
went  to  Boston  by  invitation  of  Dwight  L.  Moody,  to  conduct 
daily  meetings  for  women  in  connection  with  his  revival  services, 
and  for  three  memorable  months  the  Gospel  according  to  "Saint 
Frances"  was  the  magnet  for  mother-hearted  women,  young  and 
old,  who  crowded  Berkeley  street,  Park  street  and  Clarendon  street 
churches,  giving  sisterly  help  to  the  young  leader,  and  learning  as 
never  before  the  meaning  of  the  Love  that  never  faileth  and  of 
' '  that  light  which  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world. " 
And  not  alone  were  women's  hearts  warmed  and  uplifted  by  the 
glow  and  enthusiasm  fresh  from  the  spirit  of  this  woman  evangel, 
for  to  many  a  manly  heart  was  revealed  through  her  the  truth  that 
there  is  neither  male  nor  female  in  Christ  Jesus. 

On  the  fly  leaf  of  the  Bible  Miss  Willard  studied  during  these 
"Boston  days,"  presented  to  her  by  the  Central  W.  C.  T.  U.,  of 
Chicago,  at  a  farewell  reception  in  Farwell  Hall,  we  find  this 
entry:  "My  first  whole  day  of  real,  spiritual,  joyful,  loving  study 
of  the  kernel  of  God's  word,  simply  desirous  to  learn  my  Father's 
will,  is  this  iffo  of  February,  1877,  with  the  Boston  work  just 
begun.  And  on  this  sweet,  eventful  day,  in  which,  with  every 
hour  of  study,  the  Bible  has  grown  dearer,  I  take  as  my  life-motto 
henceforth,  humbly  asking  God's  grace  that  I  may  measure  up  to 
it,  this  wonderful  passage  from  Paul:  '  And  whatsoever  ye  do,  in 
word  or  deed,  do  all  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  giving  thanks 
to  God  and  the  Father  by  Him.'  Col.  3:17." 

' '  Sweet,  eventful  day  "  to  her,  and  its  anniversary,  twenty-one 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  103 

years  later,  was  to  witness  ' '  the  sad  hour  selected  from  all  years  " 
—  nay,  the  glad  hour  when  her  soul 

"  Began  to  beckon  like  a  star 
From  the  abode  where  the  eternal  are." 

In  March,  1878,  her  brother  Oliver,  of  whose  great  gifts  and 
genial  nature  Miss  Willard  could  never  say  enough,  suddenly 
passed  away,  and  the  editorship  of  his  paper,  the  Chicago  Evening 
Post,  was  for  many  weeks  bravely  carried  by  Miss  Willard  and  her 
intrepid  sister-in-law. 

A  multitude  of  memories  grave  and  gay  overwhelm  one  who 
attempts  to  chronicle  Miss  Willard's  life  in  its  years  of  white- 
ribbon  leadership ;  the  pioneer  work  in  the  far  West,  the  visits  to 
every  province  of  Canada,  the  campaigns  for  constitutional  amend- 
ments in  various  States,  constructive  work  for  the  International 
Council  of  Women,  the  writing  of  six  or  eight  books  in  addition  to 
an  autobiography,  the  editorship  of  the  Union  Signal,  the  presen- 
tation of  Mrs.  Hayes'  portrait  to  the  White  House,  heroic  work 
for  the  Temple,  the  National  Temperance  Hospital,  and  the 
Woman's  Temperance  Publishing  Association.  Yet  these  are  not 
a  tithe  of  the  interests  that,  in  addition  to  continuous  public  speak- 
ing and  incessant  correspondence,  pressed  their  claims  upon  a 
heart  that  was  always  "at  leisure  from  itself,  to  soothe  and 
sympathize. " 

The  Temple  was  always  in  Miss  Willard's  thought  our 
"House  Beautiful,"  the  Home  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  At  the 
National  Convention  in  Buffalo,  when  there  were  cross-currents 
of  opinion  on  this  vital  subject  and  Miss  Willard  was  interviewed 
by  a  journalist  sent  to  her  from  Chicago,  she  replied  to  his  ques- 
tion, ' '  What  do  you  believe  the  Temple  means  to  the  future  of  the 
W.  C.  T.  U.  ?  "  by  saying:  "  Perhaps  I  can  best  answer  that  ques- 
tion by  an  illustration.  A  Swedish  woman  arrived  in  the  city;  she 
was  an  utter  stranger,  but  she  wore  the  white  ribbon  and  she  knew 
about  the  Temple.  She  said  to  the  first  policeman  she  met, 
'Vimmin's  Temple,'  and  he  pointed  in  a  certain  direction,  and 
she  walked  on.  She  repeated  her  question  to  the  next  one  and 


104  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

reached  the  building  in  peace  and  quiet,  appeared  in  the  offices  of 
the  World's  W.  C.  T.  U.,  sat  down  in  a  big  rocking  chair  and 
uttered  the  word  '  Home. '  There  is  a  light  in  the  window  of  the 
Temple  that  throws  its  beams  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth. 
We  have  received  gifts  from  every  civilized  land  ;  not  large 
amounts,  but  pathetic  sums  given  by  the  heart  as  well  as  the 
hand.  For  one  I  will  never  live  to  see  those  true  and  honest 
hearts  fail  of  their  expectation." 

' '  I  see  that  you  attach  great  value  to  the  sympathetic  side  of 
the  enterprise, "  said  the  newspaper  man. 

"Yea,  verily,  you  cannot  overestimate  its  meaning.  The 
mind  loves  to  see  great  and  beautiful  ideas  incarnated;  the  strug- 
gle of  the  soul  is  toward  expression.  This  is  the  explanation  of 
the  arts.  Every  statue,  every  painting,  every  musical  composition, 
every  poem,  was  once  a  thought.  Architecture  has  been  called 
'frozen  music.'  The  mind  of  man  goes  out  with  delight  and 
inspiration  toward  the  masterpieces  of  architecture.  No  poet  has 
a  greater  fame  than  that  of  the  sculptor  who  built  the  Parthenon; 
the  fame  of  Michael  Angelo  as  a  sculptor  is  outrun  by  his  fame  as 
the  architect  of  St.  Peter's  Cathedral.  Now  this  Temple  of  the 
White  Ribbon  women  is  in  itself  an  aesthetic  object  to  behold. 
One  of  our  most  gifted  Chicago  editors  has  said  that  it  is  like  a 
lady  drawing  about  her  shoulders  a  beautiful  lace  shawl;  there  is  a 
grace  combined  with  dignity,  a  symmetry  combined  with  amplitude, 
such  as  I  certainly  have  never  seen  in  a  business  block  before,  and 
I  have  beheld  the  finest  architecture  in  the  great  cities  of  the  con- 
tinent. We  all  remember  the  sense  of  tranquillity  mingled  with 
exaltation  that  comes  to  the  spirit  in  one  of  those  great  cathedrals 
that  man's  faith  has  reared  for  the  worship  of  God.  Now,  I  say  it 
reverently,  but  I  doubt  if  any  building  in  the  world  that  has  stood 
for  so  few  years  has  ever  had  wafted  toward  it  so  much  of  tender 
hope,  of  beautiful  faith,  of  love  for  humanity.  That  Temple 
stands  among  the  buildings  of  Chicago,  and  the  careless  or  sordid 
passer-by  thinks  nothing  of  it;  but  it  is  so  different  from  any  other 
business  building  in  Chicago,  or  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  that  if 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  105 

built  out  of  the  whitest  of  marble  from  turret  to  foundation  stone 
we  could  not  thus  symbolize  its  meaning  in  tens  of  thousands  of 
hallowed  Christian  homes." 

Another  affiliated  interest  of  the  National  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  Union  which  commanded  Miss  Willard's  unabated 
sympathy  was  the  National  Temperance  Hospital  and  Training 
School  for  Nurses,  in  Chicago,  formally  opened  in  May,  1886.  In 
April,  1 896,  she  wrote  ' '  A  Clarion  Call "  for  the  Hospital,  from 
which  the  following  paragraphs  are  quoted: 

"The  National  Temperance  Hospital  was  founded  ten  years 
ago  for  the  purpose  of  demonstrating  the  practicability  of  the  suc- 
cessful treatment  of  disease  without  the  use  of  alcoholic  liquors. 
At  that  time  it  was  the  only  institution  of  its  kind,  except  the 
famous  London  Temperance  Hospital,  of  which  that  celebrated 
expert  in  hygiene,  Sir  Benjamin  Ward  Richardson,  is  chief.  It  has 
now  a  medical  staff  made  up  of  first-class  practitioners  represent- 
ing different  schools  of  medicine,  and  it  has  also  a  training  school 
for  nurses. 

' '  We  are  glad  to  have  had  so  many  testimonies  in  bygone  years 
that  the  National  Temperance  Hospital  has  taken  a  deep  hold  on 
the  thought  and  affection  of  a  large  proportion  of  our  most  intelli- 
gent and  devoted  members,  and  that  its  name  and  fame  have 
become  established  in  temperance  circles  throughout  the  world. 
To  our  ever-widening  circle  of  devoted  men  and  women  we  now 

appeal  for  funds  to  erect  a  permanent  building 

'  No  great  deeds  are  wrought  by  falterers  who  work  for  certainties. 

Her  faith  in  the  principle  upon  which  this  hospital  is  erected 
was  unswerving.  She  believed  science  and  morality  clasped  hands 
in  declaring  alcohol  an  evil,  and  it  is  to  be  doubted  if  any  other 
W.  C.  T.  U.  enterprise  appealed  more  strongly  to  her  heart  and 
brain  alike. 

As  an  organizer  Miss  Willard  possessed  rare  powers  of  dis- 
cernment, and  a  still  more  rare  magnetism.  Like  the  ' '  Ancient 
Mariner"  she  could  have  said: 


106  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

' '  Whenever  that  his  face  I  see, 
I  know  the  man  who  must  hear  me  — 
To  him  I  tell  my  tale"; 

only  the  message  was  primarily  to  woman,  because  she  saw  that 
the  interests  of  the  home,  of  childhood,  of  a  purer  manhood,  were 
bound  up  in  the  elevation  of  women,  not  because  she  made  the 
mistake  of  which  she  accused  the  author  of  ' '  Getting  On  in  the 
World, "  namely,  ' '  squinting  at  humanity  and  seeing  only  half  of 
it. "  She  saw  the  real  significance  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union. 

In  the  new,  despised  society  she  saw  the  first  attempt  to  unite 
women  into  an  organization  which  should  make  the  influence  of 
womanhood  an  appreciable  power  in  the  world.  She  saw  that  the 
army  called  into  existence  by  the  ravages  of  the  saloon  upon  the 
home,  could,  with  proper  leadership,  be  arrayed  likewise  against 
every  other  evil  which  threatens  the  home  and  strikes  at  our  civili- 
zation. She  saw  in  it,  too,  a  great  educational  agency  for  women, 
and  this  ideal  gave  strength  and  courage  for  the  ceaseless  journey- 
ings,  difficult  and  distant,  which  were  to  mark  the  next  ten  years 
of  her  life.  Almost  immediately  upon  her  election  to  the  national 
presidency  she  began  that  wonderful  tour  which  was  not  to  end 
until  she  had  spoken  in  every  city  and  town  of  ten  thousand 
inhabitants  in  the  United  States,  and  in  many  of  smaller  size.  In 
1883  she  traveled  30,000  miles,  visiting  every  State  and  Territory, 
speaking  in  the  capital  cities  of  all  save  Idaho  and  Arizona.  Dur- 
ing a  dozen  years  she  averaged  one  meeting  a  day,  and  only  six 
weeks  in  a  year  for  mother-love  and  home.  Such  toil  seems  super- 
human when  one  takes  into  account  the  fact  that  the  weary  journeys 
were  never  allowed  to  interrupt  the  constant  flow  of  thought  and 
work.  To  Miss  Willard  a  railway  train  became  for  the  time  being 
only  another  Rest  Cottage  workshop,  and  the  busy  fingers  were  con- 
stantly flying  over  her  writing  tablet  as  the  train  sped  on  its  swift 
way.  Some  of  her  most  inspired  and  inspiring  utterances  were 
given  to  the  world  under  these  conditions,  for  nothing  was  able  to 
keep  her  from  the  accomplishment  of  her  great  purpose. 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  107 

She  seldom  turned  aside  for  sight-seeing.  A  trip  to  Yellow- 
stone Park  was  relinquished  because  she  found  that  thus  one  more 
point  could  be  visited  and  one  more  Union  organized.  The  goal  of 
her  consecrated  ambition  was  a  universal  sisterhood  united  in  a 
common  cause,  and  she  was  deaf  to  all  sounds  and  blind  to  all  sights 
which  might  lure  her  from  that  goal.  She  aroused  in  the  women 
who  rallied  to  her  call  not  alone  a  deep  love  and  devotion  to  her- 
self, but  a  new  faith  in  their  own  possibilities  and  a  new  hope  for 
the  race  of  which  she  was  a  part.  One  cultured  Southern  woman, 
who  later  occupied  a  prominent  position  in  national  work,  has  said: 
' '  The  first  time  I  heard  her  I  lay  awake  all  night  for  sheer  glad- 
ness. It  was  such  a  wonderful  revelation  to  me  that  a  woman  like 
Miss  Willard  could  exist.  I  thanked  God  and  took  courage  for 
humanity."  That  same  courage  has  been  breathed  into  unnum- 
bered lives.  Women,  "seeing  her  faith,"  have  had  a  like  faith 
kindled  in  their  own  hearts  —  a  faith  not  alone  in  their  individual 
ability,  but  in  the  power  of  an  organized  womanhood.  No  won- 
der that  Unions,  State  and  local,  sprang  up  like  magic  wherever  her 
feet  trod.  She  brought  to  each  woman  that  most  mighty  of  cohes- 
ive forces,  mingled  faith  and  love. 

By  far  the  larger  number  of  State  and  Territorial  Unions  in 
the  South  and  in  the  far  West  call  Miss  Willard  mother.  Her 
first  trip  through  the  Southern  States  marks  an  epoch  in  history. 
' '  It  was  the  first  ray  of  hope  that  had  come  into  our  lives  since 
the  war, "  said  one  gentle  woman  of  the  ' '  solid  South. "  ' '  We 
had  been  sitting  dumb  and  crushed  amid  the  wreckage  of  our 
past,  and  it  seemed  as  if  there  were  no  future  for  us;  but  Miss 
Willard  came  and  held  out  to  us  that  little  white  hand,  and  its 
clasp  gave  us  new  heart  and  new  hope.  She  made  the  white 
ribbon  God's  olive  branch  of  peace." 

Bishop  Stevens,  who,  as  Colonel  Stevens,  commanded  the 
battery  that  fired  the  first  shot  on  Fort  Sumter,  introduced  Miss 
Willard  to  her  first  Southern  audience  in  Charleston,  saying, 
"This  woman,  this  Northern  woman,  this  Northern  temperance 
woman,  brings  us  the  magic  initials  W.  C.  T.  U.  Shall  we  not 


io8  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

interpret  them  in  our  case  to  mean,  We  come  to  unite  the  North 
and  the  South,  and  we  come  to  upset  the  liquor  traffic  ? "  The 
truth  of  this  prophetic  utterance  was  seen  at  the  next  National 
Convention,  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  when  Southern  women  for  the 
first  time  sat  side  by  side  with  their  Northern  sisters,  saying  to  the 
beloved  president  of  them  all,  "We  have  enlisted  with  you  to 
wage  a  peaceful  war  for  God  and  Home  and  Native  Land." 

Miss  Willard  was  essentially  a  harmonizer,  loving  peace  with 
a  love  so  deep  that  she  would  make  any  concession,  except  one  of 
principle,  to  maintain  it.  Her  power  to  organize  was  pre-eminent, 
for  the  organizer,  the  constructionist,  must  always  be  a  man  or 
woman  of  peace.  Yet  her  love  of  peace  was  never  cowardly 
inertia.  She  could  wage  most  vigorous  warfare  and  prove  herself 
a  sternly  uncompromising  foe  whenever  war  seemed  necessary.. 
With  a  nature  strong  yet  gentle,  uncompromising  yet  pliable,  we 
understand  why  she  effected  the  largest  organization  of  women  the 
world  has  ever  known. 

Miss  Willard  disproved  Goethe's  statement  that  "women  are 
ever  isolated,  ever  work  alone, "  and,  as  a  suffrage  leader  in  Massa- 
chusetts has  said,  ' '  She  has  shown  how  they  may  be  brought 
together  into  a  mighty  force  which,  wisely  directed,  may  revo- 
lutionize the  world."  Whittier  well  summed  up  her  lifework  in 
the  lines  written  for  the  marble  bust  of  Miss  Willard  presented 
to  Willard  Hall  by  Lady  Henry  Somerset: 

"  She  knew  the  power  of  banded  ill, 
But  felt  that  love  was  stronger  still, 
And  organized  for  doing  good, 
The  world's  united  womanhood." 

Miss  Willard's  genius  for  organizing  individuals  is  written 
upon  every  page  of  the  history  of  the  Women's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union.  How  often  has  she  said: 

"Alone  we  can  do  little.  Separated,  we  are  the  units  of 
weakness;  but  aggregated  we  become  batteries  of  power.  Agitate, 
educate,  organize  —  these  are  the  deathless  watchwords  of  success. 
The  fingers  of  the  hands  can  do  little  alone,  but  correlated  into  a 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  109 

fist  they  become  formidable.  The  plank  borne  here  and  there  by 
the  sport  of  the  wave  is  an  image  of  imbecility,  but  frame  a  thou- 
sand planks  of  heart  of  oak  into  a  hull,  put  in  your  engine  with  its 
heart  of  fire,  fit  out  your  ship,  and  it  shall  cross  at  a  right  angle 
those  same  waves  to  the  port  it  has  purposed  to  attain.  We  want 
all  those  like-minded  with  us,  who  would  put  down  the  dramshop, 
exalt  the  home,  redeem  manhood,  and  uplift  womanhood,  to  join 
hands  with  us  for  organized  work  according  to  a  plan.  It  took  the 
allied  armies  to  win  at  Waterloo,  and  the  alcohol  Napoleon  will 
capitulate  to  a  no  less  mighty  army. 

"It  is  the  way  commerce  has  marched  across  the  continents 
and  captured  them  for  civilization  —  one  by  one ;  it  is  the  way  an 
army  is  recruited  —  one  by  one;  it  is  the  way  Christ's  Church  is 
built  up  into  power,  and  heaven  adds  to  its  souls  redeemed  —  just 
one  by  one. 

"Women  of  the  Church,  the.  Home,  the  School,  will  you  not 
rally  to  the  holy  call  of  individual  responsibility  and  systematically 
united  effort  ? 

' '  '  For  the  cause  that  lacks  assistance, 
For  the  wrong  that  needs  resistance, 
For  the  future  in  the  distance, 

And  the  good  that  you  can  do! ' 

' '  The  human  biped  is  a  timid  creature,  who  loves  to  march  in 
platoons  rather  than  to  strike  out  swiftly  and  alone;  but  he  carries 
a  jewel  behind  the  forehead,  and  is,  therefore,  the  single  sentient 
creature  concerning  whom  there  is  hope.  You  can  change  his 
opinions  though  they  are  bone  of  his  bone,  flesh  of  his  flesh,  and 
dearer  to  him  than  his  own  right  eye.  There  are  forces  that  can 
disintegrate  from  the  igneous  rocks  of  his  prejudice  the  broader 
stratifications  of  kindlier  custom  and  more  righteous  law.  What 
with  '  line  upon  line,  precept  upon  precept,  here  a  little  and  there  a 
little '  of  persuasion  founded  upon  justice,  the  work  is  done. 

' '  In  the  morning  of  its  life  every  movement  for  man's  eleva- 
tion shines  out  with  a  light  like  that  of  Rembrandt's  pictures,  nar- 
row, but  intense.  As  the  day  deepens,  the  light  becomes  like  that 


no  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

in  Raphael's  pictures,  broad  and  all-comprehending.  So  it  is  with 
Christianity,  and  so,  as  White  Ribboners  steadfastly  believe,  it  will 
be  with  that  great  Temperance  Reform  which  was  born  of  the 
Gospel,  and  has  been  designated  by  that  intrepid  leader,  Lady 
Henry  Somerset,  as  'an  embodied  prayer.' 
' '  He  who  climbs,  sees.  Poets  tell  us  of 

'  The  one  far-off,  divine  event, 
Toward  which  the  whole  creation  moves,' 

and  in  this  mighty  movement  toward  the  power  that  organization 
only  can  bestow,  what  end  have  we  in  view?  Is  it  fame,  fortune, 
leadership  ?  Not  as  I  read  women's  hearts,  who  have  known  them 
long  and  well.  It  is  for  love's  sake  —  for  the  bringing  in  of  peace 
on  earth,  good  \vill  to  men.  The  two  supreme  attractions  in 
nature  are  gravitation  and  cohesion.  That  of  cohesion  attracts 
atom  to  atom,  that  of  gravitation  attracts  all  atoms  to  a  common 
center.  We  find  in  this  the  most  conclusive  figure  of  the  suprem- 
acy of  love  to  God  over  any  human  love,  the  true  relation  of 
human  to  the  love  divine,  and  the  conclusive  proof  that  in  organ- 
izing for  the  greatest  number's  greatest  good,  we  do  but  '  think 
God's  thoughts  after  Him. ' 

"White  Ribbon  women  distinctly  disavow  any  banding 
together  of  women  as  malcontents  or  hostiles  toward  the  corre- 
lated other  half  of  the  human  race.  Brute  force,  to  our  mind, 
means  custom  as  opposed  to  reason,  prejudice  as  the  antagonist  to 
fair  play,  and  precedent  as  the  foe  of  common  sense. 

"It  was  a  beautiful  saying  of  the  earlier  Methodists,  when 
they  avowed  a  holy  life,  '  I  feel  nothing  contrary  to  love. '  But 
the  widening  march  of  Christianity  has  given  a  wonderfully  prac- 
tical sense  to  such  words,  and  we  actually  mean  here  today  that 
whatever  in  custom  or  law  is  contrary  to  that  love  of  one's  neigh- 
bor which  would  give  to  him  or  her  all  the  rights  and  privileges 
that  one's  self  enjoys,  is  but  a  relic  of  brute  force,  and  is  to  be 
cast  out  as  evil. 

' '  And  because  woman  in  our  most  civilized  nation  is  still  so 
related  to  the  law  that  the  father  can  will  away  an  unborn  child, 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  in 

and  that  a  girl  of  seven  or  ten  years  old  is  held  to  be  the  equal 
partner  in  a  crime  where  another  and  a  stronger  is  principal; 
because  she  is  in  so  many  ways  hampered  and  harmed  by  laws 
and  customs  pertaining  to  the  past,  we  reach  out  hands  of  help 
especially  to  her  that  she  may  overtake  the  swift  marching  proces- 
sion of  progress,  for  its  sake,  that  it  may  not  slacken  its  speed  on 
her  account,  as  much  as  for  hers  that  she  be  not  left  behind.  We 
thus  represent  the  human  rather  than  the  woman  question,  and 
our  voices  unite  to  do  that  which  the  President  of  the  New  York 
Woman's  Club  beautifully  said  in  a  late  letter  to  the  Club  of 

Bombay: 

"  '  Tell  them  the  world  was  made  for  woman,  too.' 

' '  It  has  been  well  said  *  no  other  association  of  philanthropic 
workers  has  touched  so  many  springs  of  praise  and  blame,  of  love 
and  hate,  and  become  equally  distinguished  for  the  friends  it  has 
won  and  the  enemies  it  has  made,  and  the  proof  of  the  effective- 
ness of  the  mission  undertaken  is  easy  to  find  on  the  very  surface 
of  things.  Cursed  at  the  bar  of  the  legalized  dramshop;  hissed 
on  the  floor  of  the  Beer  Brewers'  Congress;  scorned  by  conven- 
tions of  political  parties;  misrepresented  by  the  all-powerful  press; 
denied  its  prayer  in  the  halls  of  legislation ;  sneered  at  in  places  of 
fashion,  where  the  wineglass  tempts  to  destroy;  criticised  by  con- 
servative pulpits;  and  unwelcome  often  in  the  Christian  church,  it 
has  been  left  to  this  organization  of  ballotless  women  to  arouse  all 
classes  of  opposers  and  find  for  themselves  the  hate  of  hate.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  blessed  by  the  fevered  lips  of  the  drunkard 
ready  to  perish ;  sought  by  the  wandering  feet  of  the  boy  or  girl 
who  went  astray;  hallowed  by  loving  thoughts  at  thousands  of 
firesides;  baptized  with  holy  tears  by  the  mothers  whose  battle 
it  wages;  perfumed  by  the  stainless  prayers  of  little  children; 
indorsed  by  the  expressed  principles  of  organized  Christianity; 
sustained  by  the  highest  and  freshest  authorities  in  the  scientific 
world ;  praised  by  lips  grown  careful  through  statesmanlike  speech ; 

*  Mrs.  Mary  T.  Lathrap,  of  Michigan,  before  the  National  Council  of  Women,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.,  1890. 


H2  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

believed  in  by  the  best,  trusted  by  the  most  needy,  it  has  been 
granted  us  also  to  find  the  'love  of  love.' 

"  As  a  working  hypothesis,  no  age  and  no  race  of  men  can 
ever  go  beyond  Christ's  simple  dictum,  '  The  kingdom  of  heaven 
is  within  you.'  It  cometh  not  by  observation;  that  is,  it  cometh 
not  suddenly,  but  little  by  little,  imperceptibly  as  one  particle  after 
another  is  added  to  one's  stature,  so  by  every  thought,  word  and 
deed,  that  kingdom  has  woven  its  warp  and  woof,  wrought  out  its 
wonderful  beauty  in  our  own  breasts.  All  pure  habits,  all  health 
and  sanity  of  brain,  make  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  The 
steady  pulse,  the  calm  and  quiet  thought,  the  splendid  equipoise  of 
will,  the  patient  industry  that  forges  right  straight  on  and  cannot 
be  abashed  or  turned  aside,  these  make  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  The  helpful  hand  outstretched  to  whatsoever  beside  us 
may  crawl  or  creep,  or  cling  or  climb,  is  a  hand  whose  very  motion 
is  part  of  the  dynamic  forces  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  The  spirit 
of  God,  by  its  divine  alchemy,  works  in  us  to  transform,  to 
recreate,  to  vivify  our  entire  being,  in  spirit,  soul  and  body,  until 
we  ourselves  incarnate  a  little  section  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

"The  deepest  billows  are  away  out  at  sea;  they  never  come 
in  sight  of  shore.  These  waves  are  like  the  years  of  God.  Upon 
the  shore  line  of  our  earthly  life  come  the  waves  of  the  swift  years ; 
they  bound  and  break  and  are  no  more.  But  far  out  upon  eter- 
nity's bosom  are  the  great,  wide,  endless  waves  that  make  the 
years  of  God;  they  never  strike  upon  the  shore  of  time.  In  all 
the  flurry  and  the  foam  about  us,  let  us  bend  our  heads  to  listen  to 
the  great  anthem  of  that  far-off  sea,  for  our  life  barks  shall  soon 
be  cradled  there;  we  are  but  building  here,  the  launch  is  not  far 
off,  and  then  the  boundless  ocean  of  the  years  of  God." 

Miss  Willard's  magnificent  conception  of  the  necessary  correl- 
lation  of  reform  forces,  her  influence  in  allying  so  many  other 
moral  forces  with  the  original  purpose  of  the  Crusade,  has  made 
the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  the  most  broadly  com- 
prehensive organization  the  world  has  ever  known.  This  "Do 
Everything  Policy"  Miss  Willard  thus  defines: 


tfi     iVMmi 


THE  TEMPLE 


Sculptor,  Geo.  E.  Wade,  London. 

WILLARD  FOUNTAIN  IN  BRONZE,  AT  ENTRANCE  TO  WILLARD  HALL 
PRESENTED  TO  CHICAGO  BY  BOYS  AND  GIRLS  OF  THE   LOYAL  TEMPERANCE  LEGION-1893. 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  113 

"When  we  began  the  delicate,  difficult  and  dangerous  opera- 
tion of  dissecting  out  the  alcohol  nerve  from  the  body  politic,  we 
did  not  realize  the  intricacy  of  the  undertaking,  nor  the  distances 
that  must  be  traversed  by  the  scalpel  of  investigation  and  research. 
More  than  twenty  years  have  elapsed  since  the  call  to  battle 
sounded  its  bugle  note  among  the  homes  and  hearts  of  Hillsboro, 
Ohio.  One  thought,  sentiment  and  purpose  animated  those 
saintly  '  Praying  Bands, '  whose  name  will  never  die  out  from 
human  history:  'Brothers,  we  beg  of  you  not  to  drink,  and  not  to 
sell ! '  This  was  the  single  wailing  note  of  these  moral  Paganinis, 
playing  on  one  string.  It  caught  the  universal  ear,  and  set  the  key 
of  that  mighty  orchestra,  organized  with  so  much  toil  and  hard- 
ship, in  which  the  tender  and  exalted  strain  of  the  Crusade  violin 
still  soars  aloft,  but  upborne  now  by  the  clanging  cornets  of  sci- 
ence, the  deep  trombones  of  legislation,  and  the  thunderous  drums 
of  politics  and  parties.  The  '  Do  Everything  Policy '  was  not  of 
our  choosing,  but  is  an  evolution,  as  inevitable  as  any  traced  by  the 
naturalist,  or  described  by  the  historian.  Woman's  genius  for 
details,  and  her  patient  steadfastness  in  following  the  enemies  of 
those  she  loves  '  through  every  lane  of  life, '  have  led  her  to  antag- 
onize the  alcohol  habit,  and  the  liquor  traffic,  just  where  they  are, 
wherever  that  may  be.  If  she  does  this,  since  they  are  every- 
where, her  policy  will  be,  '  Do  Everything. ' 

' '  A  one-sided  movement  makes  one-sided  advocates.  Virtues, 
like  hounds,  hunt  in  packs.  Total  abstinence  is  not  the  crucial 
virtue  in  life  that  excuses  financial  crookedness,  defamation  of 
character,  or  habits  of  impurity.  The  fact  that  one's  father  was, 
and  one's  self  is,  a  bright  and  shining  light  in  the  total  abstinence 
galaxy,  does  not  give  one  a  vantage  ground  for  high-handed 
behavior  toward  those  who  have  not  been  trained  to  the  special 
virtue  that  forms  the  central  idea  of  the  Temperance  Movement. 
We  have  known  persons  who,  because  they  had  '  never  touched  a 
drop  of  liquor,'  set  themselves  up  as  if  they  belonged  to  a  royal 
line,  but  whose  tongues  were  as  biting  as  alcohol  itself,  and  whose 
narrowness  had  no  competitor,  save  a  straight  line.  An  all-round 


u4  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

movement  can  only  be  carried  forward  by  all-round  advocates  ;  a 
scientific  age  requires  the  study  of  every  subject  in  its  correlations. 
It  was  once  supposed  that  light,  heat  and  electricity  were  wholly 
separate  entities;  it  is  now  believed,  and  practically  proved,  that 
they  are  but  different  modes  of  motion.  Standing  in  the  valley, 
we  look  up  and  think  we  see  an  isolated  mountain ;  climbing  to  its 
top,  we  see  that  it  is  but  one  member  of  a  range  of  mountains, 
many  of  them  of  well-nigh  equal  altitude. 

' '  Some  bright  women  who  have  opposed  the  '  Do  Every- 
thing Policy, '  used  as  their  favorite  illustration  a  flowing  river,  and 
expatiated  on  the  ruin  that  would  follow  if  that  river  (which  repre- 
sents their  Do  One  Thing  Policy)  were  diverted  into  many  chan- 
nels; but  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  most  useful  of  all 
rivers  is  the  Nile,  and  that  the  agricultural  economy  of  Egypt 
consists  in  the  effort  to  spread  its  waters  upon  as  many  fields  as 
possible.  It  is  not  for  the  river's  sake  that  it  flows  through  the 
country,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  fertility  it  can  bring  upon  the 
adjoining  fields,  and  this  is  pre-eminently  true  of  the  Temperance 
Reform. 

' '  Let  us  not  be  disconcerted,  but  stand  bravely  by  that 
blessed  trinity  of  movements,  Prohibition,  Woman's  Liberation 
and  Labor's  Uplift. 

' '  Everything  is  not  in  the  Temperance  Reform,  but  the  Tem- 
perance Reform  should  be  in  everything. 

' '  '  Organized  Mother-Love '  is  the  best  definition  of  the 
White  Ribbon  Movement,  and  it  can  have  no  better  motto  than: 
'  Make  a  chain,  for  the  land  is  full  of  bloody  crimes  and  the  citv 
of  violence.' 

"If  we  can  remember  this  simple  rule,  it  will  do  much  to 
unravel  the  mystery  of  the  much-controverted  '  Do  Everything 
Policy,'  namely,  that  every  question  of  practical  philanthropy  or 
reform  has  its  temperance  aspect,  and  with  that  we  are  to  deal. " 

Miss  Willard's  conviction  of  the  essential  right  and  justice  of 
the  principle  of  woman's  suffrage,  with  a  twin  conviction  that  she 
must  be  its  public  advocate,  came  to  her  in  the  capital  of  the 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  115 

Crusade  State  in  1876,  while  she  was  upon  her  knees  in  prayer, 
lifting  her  heart  to  God  with  the  cry,  ' '  What  wouldst  Thou  have 
me  to  do? "  She  felt  that  all  the  power  of  God  would  be  at  her 
disposal  in  her  advocacy  of  the  views  she  felt  constrained  to 
declare,  and  at  once  asked  permission  to  present  the  subject  at 
the  projected  Centennial  temperance  meeting,  in  the  Academy  of 
Music,  Philadelphia,  but  the  request  was  declined.  Even  at 
Chautauqua,  a  few  weeks  later,  she  felt  the  conservative  influence 
and  refrained  from  speaking  out  her  deepest  thought.  This 
dauntless  pioneer  next  visited  Old  Orchard  Beach,  and  tells  us 
that  in  the  ' '  fragrant  air  of  Maine's  dear  piney  woods,  with  the 
great  free  ocean's  salt  spray  to  invigorate  lungs  and  soul,  I  first 
avowed  the  faith  that  was  within  mfe.  All  around,  my  good  friends 
looked  so  much  surprised  and  some  of  them  so  sorry. "  Miss  Wil- 
lard  found  a  strong  friend  in  Maria  Mitchell,  who  gave  her  a 
4  4  home-protection  audience, "  at  the  Woman's  Congress.  Her 
first  avowal  of  this  theme,  dear  to  her  heart,  before  the  National 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  was  made  in  the  year  1876 
before  the  annual  convention,  held  in  Newark,  New  Jersey.  Miss 
Willard's  own  pen  picture  is  the  best  delineation  of  that  now 
historic  scene: 

4  4  By  this  time  my  soul  had  come  to  4  woe  is  me  if  I  declare 
not  this  gospel. '  Welcome  or  not,  the  words  must  come.  In  a 
great  crowded  church,  with  smiles  on  some  faces  and  frowns  on 
others,  I  came  forward.  Our  gifted  Mary  Lathrap  had  told  a  war 
story  in  one  of  her  addresses  about  a  colored  man  who  saw  a  boat 
bearing  down  upon  the  skiff  drawn  up  to  shore,  in  which  he  and 
three  white  men  were  concealed.  If  he  could  only  push  off 
instantly  they  would  be  saved,  but  to  show  himself  was  fatal. 
But  he  did  not  hesitate ;  calling  out,  4  Somebody's  got  to  be  killed, 
and  it  might  as  well  be  me, '  he  launched  the  boat  and  fell  with  a 
bullet  in  his  heart.  In  that  difficult  hour  this  story  came  to  me, 
and  as  I  told  it  some  of  my  good  friends  wept  at  the  thought  of 
ostracism  which,  from  that  day  to  this,  has  been  its  sequel  —  not 
as  a  rule,  but  a  painful  exception.  When  I  had  finished  the  argu- 


n6  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

ment,  a  lady  from  New  York,  gray-haired  and  dignified,  who  was 
presiding,  said  to  the  audience :  '  The  National  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  Union  is  not  responsible  for  the  utterances  of  this 
evening.  We  have  no  mind  to  trail  our  skirts  in  the  mire  of  poli- 
tics.' She  doubtless  felt  it  her  duty  to  speak,  and  I  had  no 
thought  of  blame,  only  regret.  As  we  left  the  church,  one  of  our 
chief  women  said :  '  You  might  have  been  a  leader  in  our  national 
councils,  but  you  have  deliberately  chosen  to  be  only  a  scout. 

Miss  Willard  had  no  way  of  knowing,  unless  by  divine  intui- 
tion, that  this  prophecy  was  false ;  yet  a  scout  she  dared  and  chose 
to  become.  Three  years  later,  at  the  very  Convention  which 
elected  her  its  President,  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  declared  for  the  ballot  in  the  hands  of  woman,  and  during 
the  years  which  have  followed  it  is  universally  acknowledged 
to  have  accomplished  more  in  molding  the  public  opinion  of  the 
home  and  the  church  in  favor  of  this  reform  than  has  any  other 
one  agency. 

THE  "HOME  PROTECTION"  ADDRESS. 

The  whisky  power  looms  like  a  Chimborazo  among  the  moun- 
tains of  difficulty  over  which  our  native  land  must  climb  to  reach 
the  future  of  our  dreams.  The  problem  of  the  rum  power's  over- 
throw may  well  engage  our  thoughts  as  women  and  as  patriots. 
Tonight  I  ask  you  to  consider  it  in  the  light  of  a  truth  which 
Frederick  Douglass  has  embodied  in  these  words:  "We  can  in 
the  long  run  trust  all  the  knowledge  in  the  community  to  take  care 
of  all  the  ignorance  of  the  community,  and  all  of  its  virtue  to  take 
care  of  all  of  its  vice."  The  difficulty  in  the  application  of  this 
principle  lies  in  the  fact  that  vice  is  always  in  the  active,  virtue 
often  in  the  passive.  Vice  is  aggressive.  It  deals  swift,  sure 
blows,  delights  in  keen-edged  weapons,  and  prefers  a  hand-to-hand 
conflict,  while  virtue  instinctively  fights  its  unsavory  antagonist  at 
arm's  length;  its  great  guns  are  unwieldy  and  slow  to  swing  into 
range. 


ORGANIZER  AND   LEADER  117 

Vice  is  the  tiger,  with  keen  eyes,  alert  ears  and  cat-like  tread, 
while  virtue  is  the  slow-paced,  complacent,  easy-going  elephant, 
whose  greatest  danger  lies  in  its  ponderous  weight  and  conscious- 
ness of  power.  So  the  great  question  narrows  down  to  one  of 
methods.  It  is  not,  when  we  look  carefully  into  the  conditions  of 
the  problem,  How  shall  we  develop  more  virtue  in  the  community 
to  offset  the  tropical  growth  of  vice  by  which  we  find  ourselves 
environed,  but  rather,  how  the  tremendous  force  we  have  may  best 
be  brought  to  bear,  how  we  may  unlimber  the  huge  cannon  now 
pointing  into  vacancy,  and  direct  their  full  charge  at  short  range 
upon  our  nimble,  wily,  vigilant  foe? 

As  bearing  upon  a  consideration  of  that  question,  I  lay  down 
this  proposition:  All  pure  and  Christian  sentiment  concerning  any 
line  of  conduct  which  vitally  affects  humanity  will,  sooner  or  later, 
crystallize  into  law.  But  the  keystone  of  law  can  only  be  firm  and 
secure  when  it  is  held  in  place  by  the  arch  of  that  keystone,  which 
is  public  sentiment. 

I  make  another  statement  not  so  often  reiterated,  but  just  as 
true,  namely:  The  more  thoroughly  you  can  enlist  in  favor  of  your 
law  the  natural  instincts  of  those  who  have  the  power  to  make  that 
law,  and  to  select  the  officers  who  shall  enforce  it,  the  more  securely 
stands  the  law.  And  still  another:  First  among  the  powerful  and 
controlling  instincts  in  our  nature  stands  that  of  self-preservation, 
and  next  after  this,  if  it  does  not  claim  superior  rank,  comes  that  of 
a  mother's  love.  You  can  count  upon  that  every  time;  it  is  sure 
and  resistless  as  the  tides  of  the  sea,  for  it  is  founded  in  the 
changeless  nature  given  to  her  from  God. 

Now,  the  stronghold  of  the  rum  power  lies  in  the  fact  that  it 
has  upon  its  side  two  deeply-rooted  appetites,  namely:  in  the 
dealer,  the  appetite  for  gain,  and  in  the  drinker,  the  appetite  for 
stimulants.  We  have  dolorously  said  in  times  gone  by  that  on  the 
human  plane  we  have  nothing  adequate  to  match  against  this 
frightful  pair.  But  let  us  think  more  carefully  and  we  shall  find 
that,  as  in  nature,  God  has  given  us  an  antidote  to  every  poison, 
and  in  grace  a  compensation  for  every  loss,  so  in  human  society  He 


n8  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

has  prepared  against  alcohol,  that  worst  foe  of  the  social  state,  an 
enemy  under  whose  weapons  it  is  to  bite  the  dust. 

Think  of  it !  There  is  a  class  in  every  one  of  our  communities — 
in  many  of  them  far  the  most  numerous  class  —  which  (I  speak  not 
vauntingly,  I  but  name  it  as  a  fact)  has  not  in  all  the  centuries  of 
wine,  beer  and  brandy  drinking,  developed,  as  a  class,  an  appetite 
for  alcohol,  but  whose  instincts,  on  the  contrary,  set  so  strongly 
against  intoxicants  that  if  the  liquor  traffic  were  dependent  on  their 
patronage  alone  it  would  collapse  this  night  as  if  all  the  nitro- 
glycerine of  Hell  Gate  reef  had  exploded  under  it. 

There  is  a  class  whose  instinct  of  self-preservation  must  forever 
be  opposed  to  a  stimulant  which  nerves  with  dangerous  strength 
arms  already  so  much  stronger  than  their  own,  and  sc  maddens  the 
brain  God  meant  to  guide  those  arms  that  they  strike  down  the 
wives  men  love,  and  the  little  children  for  whom,  when  sober,  they 
would  die.  The  wife,  largely  dependent  for  the  support  of  herself 
and  little  ones  upon  the  brain  which  strong  drink  paralyzes,  the 
arm  it  masters  and  the  skill  it  renders  futile,  will,  in  the  nature  of 
the  case,  prove  herself  unfriendly  to  the  actual  or  potential  source 
of  so  much  misery.  But  besides  this  primal  instinct  of  self-preser- 
vation, we  have  in  the  same  class  of  which  I  speak,  another  far 
more  high  and  sacred  —  I  mean  the  instinct  of  a  mother's  love,  a 
wife's  devotion,  a  sister's  faithfulness,  a  daughter's  loyalty.  And 
now  I  ask  you  to  consider  earnestly  the  fact  that  none  of  these 
blessed  rays  of  light  and  power  from  woman's  heart  are  as  yet 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  rum  shop  at  the  focus  of  power.  They 
are,  I  know,  the  sweet  and  pleasant  sunshine  of  our  homes;  they 
are  the  beams  which  light  the  larger  home  of  social  life  and  send 
their  gentle  radiance  out  even  into  the  great  and  busy  world. 

But  I  know,  and  as  the  knowledge  has  grown  clearer,  my  heart 
has  thrilled  with  gratitude  and  hope  too  deep  for  words,  that  in  a 
republic  all  these  now  divergent  beams  of  light  can,  through  that 
magic  lens,  that  powerful  sun-glass  which  we  name  the  ballot,  be 
made  to  converge  upon  the  rum  shop  in  a  blaze  of  light  that  shall 
reveal  its  full  abominations,  and  a  white  flame  of  heat  which,  like  a 


pitiless  moxa,  shall  burn  this  cancerous  excrescence  from  America's 
fair  form.  Yes,  for  there  is  nothing  in  the  universe  so  sure,  so 
strong,  as  love;  and  love  shall  do  all  this  —  the  love  of  maid  for 
sweetheart,  wife  for  husband,  of  a  sister  for  her  brother,  of  a  mother 
for  her  son.  And  I  call  upon  you  who  are  here  today,  good  men 
and  brave  —  you  who  have  welcomed  us  to  other  fields  in  the  great 
fight  of  the  angel  against  the  dragon  in  society  —  I  call  upon  you 
thus  to  match  force  with  force,  to  set  over  against  the  liquor-dealer's 
avarice  our  instinct  of  self-preservation ;  and  to  match  the  drinker's 
love  of  liquor  with  our  love  of  him !  When  you  can  center  all  this 
power  in  that  small  bit  of  paper  which  falls 

' '  As  silently  as  snowflakes  fall  upon  the  sod, 
But  executes  a  freeman's  will  as  lightnings  do  the  will  of  God," 

the  rum  power  will  be  as  much  doomed  as  was  the  slave  power 
when  you  gave  the  ballot  to  the  slaves. 

In  our  argument  it  has  -been  claimed  that  by  the  changeless 
instincts  of  her  nature  and  through  the  most  sacred  relationships  of 
which  that  nature  has  been  rendered  capable,  God  has  indicated 
woman,  who  is  the  born  conservator  of  home,  to  be  the  Nemesis  of 
home's  arch  enemy,  King  Alcohol.  And,  further,  that  in  a  republic, 
this  power  of  hers  may  be  most  effectively  exercised  by  giving  her 
a  voice  in  the  decision  by  which  the  rum-shop  door  shall  be  opened 
or  closed  beside  her  home. 

This  position  is  strongly  supported  by  evidence.  About  the 
year  1850,  petitions  were  extensively  circulated  in  Cincinnati  (later 
the  fiercest  battleground  of  the  Woman's  Crusade),  asking  that 
the  liquor  traffic  be  put  under  the  ban  of  law.  Bishop  Simp- 
son —  one  of  the  noblest  and  most  discerning  minds  of  his  century- 
was  deeply  interested  in  this  movement.  It  was  decided  to  ask 
for  the  names  of  women,  as  well  as  those  of  men,  and  it  was 
found  that  the  former  signed  the  petition  more  readily  and  in  much 
larger  numbers  than  the  latter.  Another  fact  was  ascertained 
which  rebuts  the  hackneyed  assertion  that  women  of  the  lower 
class  will  not  be  on  the  temperance  side  in  this  great  war.  For  it 


i2«  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

was  found  —  as  might,  indeed,  have  been  most  reasonably  pre- 
dicted — that  the  ignorant,  the  poor  (many  of  them  wives,  mothers 
and  daughters  of  intemperate  men),  were  among  the  most  eager  to 
sign  the  petition. 

Many  a  hand  was  taken  from  the  washtub  to  hold  the  pencil 
and  affix  the  signature  of  women  of  this  class,  and  many  another, 
which  could  only  make  the  sign  of  the  cross,  did  that  with  tears, 
and  a  hearty  ' '  God  bless  you. "  ' '  That  was  a  wonderful  lesson 
to  me, "  said  the  good  Bishop,  and  he  has  always  believed  since 
then  that  God  will  give  our  enemy  into  our  hands  by  giving  to  us 
an  ally  still  more  powerful  — woman  with  the  ballot  against  rum- 
shops  in  our  land.  It  has  been  said  so  often  that  the  very  fre- 
quency of  reiteration  has  in  some  minds  induced  belief,  that  women 
of  the  better  class  will  never  consent  to  declare  themselves  at  the 
polls.  But  tens  of  thousands  from  the  most  tenderly  sheltered 
homes  have  gone  day  after  day  to  the  saloons,  and  have  spent 
hour  after  hour  upon  their  sanded  floors,  and  in  their  reeking  air  — 
places  in  which  not  the  worst  politician  would  dare  to  locate  the 
ballot  box  of  freemen,  though  they  but  stay  a  moment  at  the 
window,  slip  in  their  votes,  and  go  their  way. 

Nothing  worse  can  ever  happen  to  women  at  the  polls  than 
has  been  endured  by  the  hour  on  the  part  of  conservative  women 
of  the  churches  in  this  land,  as  they,  in  scores  of  towns,  have  plead 
with  rough,  half-drunken  men  to  vote  the  temperance  tickets  they 
have  handed  them,  and  which,  with  vastly  more  of  propriety  and 
fitness,  they  might  have  dropped  into  the  box  themselves.  They 
could  have  done  this  in  a  moment,  and  returned  to  their  homes, 
instead  of  spending  the  whole  day  in  the  often  futile  endeavor  to 
beg  from  men  like  these  the  votes  which  should  preserve  their 
homes  from  the  whisky  serpent's  breath  for  one  uncertain  year.  I 
spent  last  May  in  Ohio,  traveling  constantly,  and  seeking  on  every 
side  to  learn  the  views  of  the  noble  women  of  the  Crusade.  They 
put  their  opinions  in  words  like  these:  "We  believe  that  as  God 
led  us  into  this  work  by  way  of  the  saloons,  He  will  lead  us  out  by 
way  of  the  ballot.  We  have  never  prayed  more  earnestly  over  the 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  121 

one  than  we  will  over  the  other.  One  was  the  Wilderness,  the 
other  is  the  Promised  Land." 

A  Presbyterian  lady,  rigidly  conservative,  said :  ' '  For  my 
part,  I  never  wanted  to  vote  until  our  gentlemen  passed  a  prohibi- 
tion ordinance  so  as  to  get  us  to  stop  visiting  saloons,  and  a  month 
later  repealed  it  and  chose  a  saloon-keeper  for  mayor. " 

Said  a  granddaughter  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  a  woman  with  no 
toleration  toward  the  Suffrage  Movement,  a  woman  crowned  with 
the  glory  of  gray  hairs,  a  central  figure  in  her  native  town  —  and 
as  she  spoke  the  courage  and  faith  of  the  Puritans  thrilled  her 
voice:  "If,  with  the  ballot  in  our  hands,  we  can,  as  I  firmly 
believe,  put  down  this  awful  traffic,  I  am  ready  to  lead  the  women 
of  my  town  to  the  polls,  as  I  have  often  led  them  to  the  rum 
shops. " 

We  must  not  forget  that  for  every  woman  who  joins  the  Tem- 
perance Unions  that  have  sprung  up  all  through  the  world,  there 
are  at  least  a  score  who  sympathize,  but  do  not  join.  Home  influ- 
ence and  cares  prevent  them,  ignorance  of  our  aims  and  methods, 
lack  of  consecration  to  Christian  work  —  a  thousand  reasons,  suffi- 
cient in  their  estimation,  though  not  in  ours,  hold  them  away  from 
us.  And  yet  they  have  this  Temperance  cause  warmly  at  heart; 
the  logic  of  events  has  shown  them  that  there  is  but  one  side  on 
which  a  woman  may  safely  stand  in  this  great  battle,  and  on  that 
side  they  would  indubitably  range  themselves  in  the  quick,  decisive 
battle  of  election  day,  nor  would  they  give  their  voice  a  second 
time  in  favor  of  the  man  who  had  once  betrayed  his  pledge  to 
enforce  the  most  stringent  law  for  the  protection  of  their  homes. 
There  are  many  noble  women,  too,  who,  though  they  do  not  think 
as  do  the  Temperance  Unions  about  the  deep  things  of  religion, 
and  are  not  as  yet  decided  in  their  total  abstinence  sentiments,  nor 
ready  for  the  blessed  work  of  prayer,  are  nevertheless  decided  in 
their  views  of  Woman  Suffrage,  and  ready  to  vote  a  temperance 
ticket  side  by  side  with  us.  And  there  are  the  drunkard's  wife  and 
daughters,  who  from  very  shame  will  not  come  with  us,  or  who  dare 


I22  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

not,  yet  who  could  freely  vote  with  us  upon  this  question ;  for  the 
folded  ballot  tells  no  tales. 

Among  other  cumulative  proofs  in  this  argument  from  experi- 
ence, let  us  consider,  briefly,  the  attitude  of  the  Catholic  Church 
toward  the  Temperance  Reform.  It  is  friendly,  at  least.  Father 
Matthew's  spirit  lives  today  in  many  a  faithful  parish  priest.  In 
our  processions  on  the  Centennial  Fourth  of  July,  the  banners  of 
Catholic  Total  Abstinence  Societies  were  often  the  only  reminders 
that  the  Republic  has  any  temperance  people  within  its  borders,  as 
they  were  the  only  offset  to  brewers'  wagons  and  distillers'  casks ; 
while  among  the  monuments  of  our  cause,  by  which  this  memora- 
ble year  is  signalized,  their  fountain  in  Fairmount  Park  —  standing 
in  the  midst  of  eighty  drinking  places  licensed  by  our  Govern- 
ment—  is  chief.  Catholic  women  would  vote  with  Protestant 
women  upon  this  issue  for  the  protection  of  their  homes. 

Again,  among  the  thousand  churches  of  America,  with  their 
million  members,  two-thirds  are  women.  Thus,  only  one-third  of 
this  trustworthy  and  thoughtful  class  has  any  voice  in  the  laws  by 
which,  between  the  church  and  the  public  school,  the  rum  shop 
nestles  in  this  Christian  land.  Surely  all  this  must  change  before 
the  Government  shall  be  upon  His  shoulders  ' '  who  shall  one  day 
reign  King  of  Nations  as  He  now  reigns  King  of  Saints. " 

Furthermore,  four-fifths  of  the  teachers  in  this  land  are  women, 
whose  thoughtful  judgment,  expressed  with  the  authority  of  which  I 
speak,  would  greatly  help  forward  the  victory  of  our  cause.  And 
finally,  by  those  who  fear  the  effect  of  the  foreign  element  in  our 
country,  let  it  be  remembered  that  we  have  six  native  women  for 
every  one  who  is  foreign  born,  for  it  is  men  who  emigrate  in  largest 
numbers  to  our  shores. 

When  all  these  facts  (and  many  more  that  might  be  added) 
are  marshaled  into  line,  how  illogical  it  seems  for  good  men  to 
harangue  us  as  they  do  about  our  ' '  duty  to  educate  public  senti- 
ment to  the  level  of  better  law, "  and  to  exhort  true-hearted  Amer- 
ican mothers  to  ' '  train  their  sons  to  vote  aright. "  As  said  Mrs. 
Governor  Wallace,  of  Indiana  —  until  the  Crusade  an  opponent  of 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  123 

the  franchise  — "What  a  bitter  sarcasm  you  utter,  gentlemen,  to  us 
who  have  the  public  sentiment  of  which  you  speak,  all  burning  in 
our  hearts,  and  yet  are  not  permitted  to  turn  it  to  account. " 

Let  us,  then,  each  one  of  us  offer  our  earnest  prayer  to  God, 
and  speak  our  honest  word  to  man  in  favor  of  this  added  weapon 
in  woman's  hands,  remembering  that  every  petition  in  the  ear  of 
God,  and  every  utterance  in  the  ears  of  men,  swells  the  dimen- 
sions of  that  resistless  tide  of  influence  which  shall  yet  float  within 
our  reach  all  that  we  ask  or  need.  Good  and  true  women  who 
have  crusaded  in  rum  shops,  I  urge  that  you  begin  crusading  in 
halls  of  legislation,  in  primary  meetings,  and  the  offices  of  excise 
commissioners.  Roll  in  your  petitions,  burnish  your  arguments, 
multiply  your  prayers.  Go  to  the  voters  in  your  town  —  procure 
the  official  list  and  see  them  one  by  one  —  and  get  them  pledged 
to  a  local  ordinance  requiring  the  votes  of  men  and  women  before 
a  license  can  be  issued  to  open  rum-shop  doors  beside  your  homes; 
go  to  the  legislature  with  the  same;  remember  this  may  be  just 
as  really  Christian  work  as  praying  in  saloons  was  in  those  other 
glorious  days.  Let  us  not  limit  God,  whose  modes  of  operation 
are  so  infinitely  varied  in  nature  and  in  grace.  I  believe  in  the 
correlation  of  spiritual  forces,  and  that  the  heat  which  melted 
hearts  to  tenderness  in  the  Crusade  is  soon  to  be  the  light  which 
shall  reveal  our  opportunity  and  duty  as  the  Republic's  daughters. 

Longer  ago  than  I  shall  tell,  my  father  returned  one  night 
to  the  far-off  Wisconsin  home  where  I  was  reared;  sitting  by 
my  mother's  chair,  with  a  child's  attentive  ear,  I  listened  to  their 
words.  He  told  us  of  the  news  that  day  had  brought  about  Neal 
Dow  and  the  great  fight  for  prohibition  down  in  Maine,  and  then 
he  said :  "I  wonder  if  poor,  rum-cursed  Wisconsin  will  ever  get  a 
law  like  that  ?  "  And  mother  rocked  a  while  in  silence  in  the  dear 
old  chair  I  love,  and  then  she  gently  said:  "Yes,  Josiah;  there'll 
be  such  a  law  all  over  the  land  some  day,  when  women  vote. " 

My  father  had  never  heard  her  say  so  much  before.  He  was 
a  great  conservative;  so  he  looked  tremendously  astonished,  and 
replied  in  his  keen,  sarcastic  voice :  ( '  And  pray  how  will  you 


I24  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

arrange  it  so  that  women  shall  vote  ?  "  Mother's  chair  went  to  and 
fro  a  little  faster  for  a  minute,  and  then,  looking  not  into  his  face, 
but  into  the  flickering  flames  of  the  grate,  she  slowly  answered: 
' « Well,  I  say  to  you,  as  the  apostle  Paul  said  to  his  jailer,  '  You 
have  put  us  into  prison,  we  being  Romans,  and  you  must  come 
and  take  us  out. 

That  was  a  seed- thought  in  a  girl's  brain  and  heart.  Years 
passed  on,  in  which  nothing  more  was  said  upon  this  dangerous 
theme.  My  brother  grew  to  manhood,  and  soon  after  he  was 
twenty-one  years  old  he  went  with  his  father  to  vote.  Standing 
by  the  window,  a  girl  of  sixteen  years,  a  girl  of  simple,  homely 
fancies,  not  at  all  strong-minded,  and  altogether  ignorant  of  the 
world,  I  looked  out  as  they  drove  away,  my  father  and  my  brother, 
and  as  I  looked  I  felt  a  strange  ache  in  my  heart,  and  tears  sprang 
to  my  eyes.  Turning  to  my  sister  Mary,  who  stood  beside  me,  I 
saw  that  the  dear  little  innocent  seemed  wonderfully  sober,  too. 
I  said:  "Don't  you  wish  we  could  go  with  them  when  we  are  old 
enough?  Don't  we  love  our  country  just  as  well  as  they  do?  "  and 
her  little  frightened  voice  piped  out :  ' '  Yes,  of  course  we  ought. 
Don't  I  know  that?  but  you  mustn't  tell  a  soul  —  not  mother,  even; 
we  should  be  called  strong-minded. " 

In  all  the  years  since  then  I  have  kept  these  things,  and  many 
others  like  them,  and  pondered  them  in  my  heart;  but  two  years 
of  struggle  in  this  temperance  reform  have  shown  me  my  duty,  as 
they  have  ten  thousand  other  women,  so  clearly  and  so  impress- 
ively, that  I  long  ago  passed  the  Rubicon  of  silence,  and  am  ready 
for  any  battle  that  shall  be  involved  in  this  honest  declaration  of 
the  faith  that  is  within  me.  ' '  Fight  behind  masked  batteries  a 
little  longer, "  whisper  good  friends  and  true.  So  I  have  been  fight- 
ing hitherto;  but  it  is  a  style  of  warfare  altogether  foreign  to  my 
temperament  and  mode  of  life.  Reared  on  the  prairies,  I  seemed 
predetermined  to  join  the  cavalry  forces  in  this  great  spiritual  war, 
and  I  must  tilt  a  free  lance  henceforth  on  the  splendid  battlefield 
of  this  reform;  where  the  earth  shall  soon  be  shaken  by  the  onset 
of  contending  hosts;  where  legions  of  valiant  soldiers  are  deploy- 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  125 

ing;  where  to  the  grand  encounter  marches  today  a  great  army, 
gentle  of  mien  and  mild  of  utterance,  but  with  hearts  for  any  fate ; 
where  there  are  trumpets  and  bugles  calling  strong  souls  onward 
to  a  victory  that  heaven  might  envy,  and 

"  Where,  behind  the  dim  Unknown, 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow, 
Keeping  watch  above  His  own." 

I  thought  that  women  ought  to  have  the  ballot  as  I  paid  the 
hard-earned  taxes  upon  my  mother's  cottage  home  —  but  I  never 
said  as  much  —  somehow  the  motive  did  not  command  my  heart. 
For  my  own  sake,  I  had  not  courage,  but  I  have  for  thy  sake,  dear 
native  land,  for  thy  necessity  is  as  much  greater  than  mine  as  thy 
transcendent  hope  is  greater  than  the  personal  interest  of  thy  hum- 
ble child.  For  love  of  you,  heartbroken  wives,  whose  tremulous 
lips  have  blessed  me;  for  love  of  you,  sweet  mothers,  who,  in  the 
cradle's  shadow,  kneel  this  night  beside  your  infant  sons;  and  you, 
sorrowful  little  children,  who  listen  at  this  hour,  with  faces 
strangely  old,  for  him  whose  footsteps  frighten  you ;  for  love  of  you 
have  I  thus  spoken. 

Ah,  it  is  women  who  have  given  the  costliest  hostages  to 
fortune.  Out  into  the  battle  of  life  they  have  sent  their  best 
beloved,  with  fearful  odds  against  them,  with  snares  that  men 
have  legalized  and  set  for  them  on  every  hand.  Beyond  the  arms 
that  held  them  long,  their  boys  have  gone  forever.  Oh!  by  the 
danger  they  have  dared;  by  the  hours  of  patient  watching  over 
beds  where  helpless  children  lay;  by  the  incense  of  ten  thousand 
prayers  wafted  from  their  gentle  lips  to  heaven,  I  charge  you  give 
them  power  to  protect,  along  life's  treacherous  highway,  those 
whom  they  have  so  loved.  Let  it  no  longer  be  that  they  must 
sit  back  among  the  shadows,  hopelessly  mourning  over  their  strong 
staff  broken,  and  their  beautiful  rod;  but  when  the  sons  they  love 
shall  go  forth  to  life's  battle,  still  let  their  mothers  walk  beside 
them,  sweet  and  serious,  and  clad  in  the  garments  of  power. 


I26  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

The  same  calm  and,  to  a  superficial  observer,  reckless  dis- 
regard of  consequences,  marked  her  policy  in  the  later  struggle  for 
affiliation  with  that  political  party  which,  in  her  judgment,  alone 
breathed  the  spirit  of  the  Crusade.  When  convinced  by  the 
resistless  logic  of  events,  and  the  equally  resistless  logic  of  her 
own  mind,  that  woman's  ballot  could  be  an  effective  agency  for  the 
preservation  of  the  home  only  as  a  proper  channel  should  be  sup- 
plied through  which  it  might  express  itself,  she  at  once  set  out  to 
find  that  channel.  When  she  believed  she  had  found  it,  she  did 
not  hesitate  to  throw  the  whole  weight  of  her  influence  in  favor  of 
that  party  which  seemed  to  her  the  best  embodiment  of  home  pro- 
tection. It  was  not  an  easy  thing  to  do.  Party  feeling  ran  far 
higher  in  those  years  than,  please  God,  it  is  likely  to  do  again.  It 
took  courage  to  go  against  those  with  whom  for  years  she  had  been 
in  perfect  accord,  courage  to  be  branded  as  a  fanatic  and  an  icono- 
clast; but  just  that  splendid  courage  was  hers,  and  having  once  set 
her  hand  to  the  plow,  there  was  for  her  no  looking  back.  Her  first 
utterance  in  favor  of  party  prohibition  was  made  at  the  Boston 
Convention  in  1880;  her  last  at  Buffalo,  when,  the  report  of  the 
Committee  on  Resolutions  having  been  presented  during  her 
absence  from  the  hall,  she  arose  in  the  great  public  meeting  at 
night  and,  in  her  quaintly  humorous  way,  announced  that  it  had 
been  "moved,  seconded  and  unanimously  carried  in  her  own 
mind"  that  the  differing  factions  existing  among  her  beloved 
brethren  should  once  more  come  together,  should  insert  a  woman's 
suffrage  plank  in  their  platform,  and  under  the  glorious  name  of 
the  ' '  Home  Protection  Party  "  march  on  to  victory.  During  those 
intervening  years  no  faction,  no  schism,  no  ridicule,  no  persecution, 
had  turned  her  from  her  purpose.  She  still  believed  a  party  might 
and  should  exist  which  would  embody  in  its  name,  and  in  its  plat- 
form, all  that  the  term  ' '  Home  Protection  "  meant  to  her  home- 
loving  heart  !  Having  ' '  done  all, "  she  stood  ! 

Hers  was  the  genius  which  not  only  sees  new  light  and  invents 
new  methods,  but  which  recognizes  all  that  is  true  in  the  old  light 
and  uses  old  methods  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  them  seem  peren- 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  127 

nially  new.  This  was  especially  true  of  her  use  of  the  time- 
honored  custom  of  petitioning.  She  believed  with  all  her  heart 
in  the  petition  as  a  medium  for  the  expression  of  opinion  and  as  a 
means  for  educating  public  sentiment,  but  she  took  the  old  form 
and  made  it  wholly  new  by  her  skillful  manipulation.  Witness  the 
famous  "  Home  Protection  Petition  "  of  Illinois,  which  was  her  first 
work  as  President  of  her  adopted  State: 

THE  HOME  PROTECTION   PETITION. 

To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  State  of  Illinois : 

WHEREAS,  In  these  years  of  temperance  work  the  argument  of  defeat  in 
our  contest  with  the  saloons  has  taught  us  that  our  efforts  are  merely  palliative  of 
a  disease  in  the  body  politic,  which  can  never  be  cured  until  law  and  moral 
suasion  go  hand  in  hand  in  our  beloved  State  ;  and 

WHEREAS,  The  instincts  of  self-protection  and  of  apprehension  for  the 
safety  of  her  children,  her  tempted  loved  ones,  and  her  home,  render  woman 
the  natural  enemy  of  the  saloon  ; 

Therefore,  Your  petitioners,  men  and  women  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  having 
at  heart  the  protection  of  our  homes  from  their  worst  enemy,  the  legalized  traffic 
in  strong  drink,  do  hereby  most  earnestly  pray  your  honorable  body  that  by  suit- 
able legislation  it  may  be  provided  that  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  the  question  of 
licensing  at  any  time,  in  any  locality,  the  sale  of  any  and  all  intoxicating  drinks 
shall  be  submitted  to  and  determined  by  ballot,  in  which  women  of  lawful  age 
shall  be  privileged  to  take  part,  in  the  same  manner  as  men,  when  voting  on  the 
question  of  license. 

To  this  Petition  were  secured  in  ninety  days  two  hundred 
thousand  names.  The  State  House  in  Springfield  was  draped 
with  the  petition  which  was  pasted  upon  white  cloth,  one  edge  of 
which  was  bound  with  red  and  the  other  with  blue,  and  its  pres- 
entation was  made  a  genuine  gala-day. 

Her  Memorial  presented  before  the  various  political  conven- 
tions in  the  year  1884  is  another  example  of  the  skillful  use  to 
which  she  could  put  ' '  the  right  of  a  sovereign  people  to  petition, " 
while  her  Purity  Petition,  which  served  largely  as  the  basis  of  the 
White  Cross  and  White  Shield  work  in  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U. 
has  been  presented  before  the  legislatures  of  nearly  every  State 
in  the  Union  with  blessed  results. 


J28  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

PETITION   OF  THE  WOMAN'S   CHRISTIAN   TEMPERANCE   UNION 

FOR    FURTHER    PROVISION   FOR   THE    PROTECTION    OF   WOMEN 
AND    CHILDREN. 

To  the  Honorable,  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  State  of .• 

The  increasing  and  alarming  frequency  of  assaults  upon  women,  the  fright- 
ful indignities  to  which  even  little  girls  are  subject,  and  the  corrupting  of  boys, 
have  become  the  shame  of  our  boasted  civilization. 

We  believe  that  the  statutes  of do  not  meet  the .  demands  of  that 

newly  awakened   public   sentiment  which   requires   better  legal    protection    for 
womanhood  and  childhood  ; 

Therefore,  we,  the  undersigned  citizens  of ,  County  of ,  and 

State  of ,  pray  you  to  enact  further  provision  for  the  protection  of  women 

and  children.     And  we  call  attention  to  the  disgraceful  fact  that  protection  of  the 
person  is  not  placed  by  our  laws  upon  so  high  a  plane  as  protection  of  the  purse. 

As  a  presiding  officer  Miss  Willard  was  without  a  peer.  It 
was  an  education  in  itself  to  see  her  marshal  the  hosts  at  one  of  the 
great  conventions  of  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U.  However  skeptical 
a  visitor  might  be  of  "women's  meetings" — however  prejudiced 
against  this  particular  woman  as  the  embodiment  of  ' '  white-ribbon 
fanaticism " —  he  was  not  proof  against  the  magic  spell  of  the 
gavel  in  her  firm  little  hand  and  the  inspiration  of  her  exquisite 
face.  How  much  he  might  have  gone  "to  scoff,"  he  remained  — 
if  not  ' '  to  pray, "  to  marvel  at  the  power  of  the  woman  whom  he 
had  seen  before  him  perhaps  for  days.  Her  graceful  tact,  her 
quickness  of  repartee,  her  wondrous  grace  and  graciousness,  her 
felicity  of  word  and  phrase,  her  comprehensive  mind  and  her  all- 
embracing  heart  were  never  more  clearly  seen  than  in  one  of 
those  home-gatherings  of  the  white-ribbon  clans.  She  was  not 
an  uncrowned  but  a  crowned  queen  in  those  days,  and  her  loyal, 
devoted  subjects  delighted  to  bow  to  her  mandate  and  to  do  her 
glad  homage.  For  nineteen  years  ' '  her  banner  over  us  was  love  " ; 
love  like  the  mighty  waves  of  the  ocean  from  her  heart  to  ours  - 
an  answering  love,  the  chorus  of  many  waters  —  from  our  hearts 
to  hers. 

The  best  definition  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  and  its  multiplied  activities  must  be  given  by  our  leader  her- 


FRANCES  E.  WILLARD 
MARBLE  BUST  BY  ANNE  WHITNEY,  IN  WILLARD  HALL.  THE  TEMPLE. 


THE  GENERAL  OFFICERS  OF  THE  WORLD'S  W.  C.  T.  U. 

FRANCES  E.  WILLARD, 
AGNES  E.  SLACK,  President.  LADY  HENRY  SOMERSET, 


Secretary. 
ANNA  A.  GORDON. 

Assistant  Secretary . 


Vice-  President-at-large. 

MARY  E.  SANDERSON, 
Treasurer. 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  129 

self,   and  we  quote  from  one  of  her  matchless  annual  addresses 
before  the  National  Convention: 

' '  More  than  any  other  society  ever  formed,  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  is  the  exponent  of  what  is  best  in 
this  latter-day  civilization.  Its  scope  is  the  broadest,  its  aims  are  the 
kindest,  its  history  is  the  most  heroic.  I  yield  to  none  in  admira- 
tion of  woman's  splendid  achievements  in  church  work  and  in  the 
Foreign  Missionary  Society,  which  was  my  first  love  as  a  philanthro- 
pist, but  in  both  instances  the  denominational  character  of  that 
work  interferes  with  its  unity  and  breadth.  The  same  is  true  of 
woman's  educational  undertakings,  glorious  as  they  are.  Her 
many-sided  charities,  in  homes  for  the  orphaned  and  the  indigent, 
hospitals  for  the  sick  and  asylums  for  the  old,  are  the  admiration 
of  all  generous  hearts,  but  these  are  local  in  their  interest  and 
result  from  the  loving  labors  of  isolated  groups.  The  same  is  true 
of  the  women's  prisons  -and  industrial  schools,  which  are  now  multi- 
plying with  such  beneficent  rapidity.  Nor  do  I  forget  the  sanitary 
work  of  women,  which  gleamed  like  a  heavenly  rainbow  on  the 
horrid  front  of  war;  but  noble  men  shared  the  labor  as  they  did 
the  honor  on  that  memorable  field.  Neither  am  I  unmindful  of 
the  Woman's  Christian  Association,  strongly  intrenched  in  most  of 
our  great  cities,  and  doing  valiant  battle  for  the  Prince  of  Peace; 
but  it  admits  to  its  sacramental  host  only  members  of  the  churches 
known  as  '  Evangelical. '  Far  be  it  from  me  to  seem  indifferent  to 
that  electric  intellectual  movement  from  which  have  resulted  the 
societies,  literary  and  aesthetic,  in  which  women  have  combined  to 
study  classic  history,  philosophy  and  art,  but  these  have  no 
national  unity;  or  to  forget  the  'Woman's  Congress, '  with  its 
annual  meeting  and  wide  outlook,  but  lack  of  local  auxiliaries;  or 
the  '  Exchanges, '  where  women  too  poor  or  proud  to  bring  their 
wares  before  the  public,  are  helped  to  put  money  in  their  purse, 
but  which  lack  cohesion;  or  the  state  and  associated  charities, 
where  women  do  much  of  the  work  and  men  most  of  the  superin- 
tendence. But  when  all  is  said,  the  Woman's  Christian  Temper- 
ance Union,  local,  state  and  national,  in  the  order  of  its  growth, 


I3o  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

with  its  unique  and  heavenly  origin,  its  steady  march,  its  multi- 
plied auxiliaries,  its  blessed  out-reaching  to  the  generous  South 
and  the  far  frontier,  its  broad  sympathies  and  its  "abundant 
entrance"  ministered  to  all  good  and  true  women  who  are  willing  to 
clasp  hands  in  one  common  effort  to  protect  their  homes  and  loved 
ones  from  the  ravages  of  drink,  is  an  organization  without  a  pattern 
save  that  seen  in  heavenly  vision  upon  the  mount  of  faith,  and 
without  a  peer  among  the  sisterhoods  that  have  grouped  them- 
selves around  the  cross  of  Christ. 

' '  In  the  fullness  of  time  this  mighty  work  has  been  given  us. 
Preceding  ages  would  not  have  understood  the  end  in  view  and 
would  have  spurned  the  means,  but  the  nineteenth  century,  stand- 
ing on  the  shoulders  of  its  predecessors,  has  a  wider  outlook  and  a 
keener  vision.  It  has  studied  science  and  discovered  that  the 
tumult  of  the  whirlwind  is  less  powerful  than  the  silence  of  the 
dew.  It  has  ransacked  history  and  learned  that  the  banner  and 
the  sword  were  never  yet  the  symbols  of  man's  grandest  victories, 
and  it  begins  at  last  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  that  inspired  philos- 
ophy, which  through  all  ages  has  been  gently  saying :  '  The  race  is 
not  always  to  the  swift,  neither  the  battle  to  the  strong. ' 

"The  W.  C.  T.  U.  stands  as  the  exponent,  not  alone  of  that 
return  to  physical  sanity  which  will  follow  the  downfall  of  the  drink 
habit,  but  of  the  reign  of  a  religion  of  the  body  which  for  the  first 
time  in  history  shall  correlate  with  Christ's  wholesome,  practical, 
yet  blessedly  spiritual  religion  of  the  soul.  '  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  within  you '  shall  have  a  new  meaning  to  the  clear-eyed, 
steady-limbed  Christians  of  the  future,  from  whose  brain  and  blood 
the  taint  of  alcohol  and  nicotine  has  been  eliminated  by  ages  of 
pure  habits  and  noble  heredity.  '  The  body  is  the  temple  of  the 
Holy  Ghost '  will  not  then  seem  so  mystical  a  statement,  nor  one 
indicative  of  a  temple  so  insalubrious  as  now.  '  He  that  destroy  - 
eth  this"  temple,  him  shall  God  destroy, '  will  be  seen  to  involve  no 
element  of  vengeance,  but  instead  to  be  the  declaration  of  such 
boundless  love  and  pity  for  our  race,  as  would  not  suffer  its  dete- 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  131 

deration  to  reach  the  point  of  absolute  failure  and  irremediable 
loss. 

' '  The  women  of  this  land  have  never  had  before  such  training 
as  is  furnished  by  the  topical  studies  of  our  society,  in  the  laws  by 
which  childhood  shall  set  out  upon  its  endless  journey  with  a  price- 
less heritage  of  powers  laid  up  in  store  by  the  tender,  sacred  fore- 
sight of  those  by  whom  the  young  immortal's  being  was  invoked. 
The  laws  of  health  were  never  studied  by  so  many  mothers,  or 
with  such  immediate  results  for  good  on  their  own  lives  and  those  of 
their  children.  The  deformed  waist  and  foot  of  the  average  fash- 
ionable American  never  seemed  so  hideous  and  wicked,  nor  the 
cumbrous  dress  of  the  period  so  unendurable  as  now,  when  from 
studying  one  '  poison  habit, '  our  minds  by  the  inevitable  laws  of 
thought  reach  out  to  wider  researches  and  more  varied  deductions 
than  we  had  dreamed  at  first.  The  economies  of  co-operative 
housekeeping  never  looked  so  attractive  or  so  feasible  as  since  the 
homemakers  have  learned  something  about  the  priceless  worth  of 
time  and  money  for  the  purposes  of  a  Christ-like  benevolence.  The 
value  of  a  trained  intellect  never  had  such  significance  as  since  we 
have  learned  what  an  incalculable  saving  of  words  there  is  in  a 
direct  style,  what  value  in  the  power  of  classification  of  fact,  what 
boundless  resources  for  illustrating  and  enforcing  truth  come  as  the 
sequel  of  a  well-stored  memory  and  a  cultivated  imagination.  The 
puerility  of  mere  talk  for  the  sake  of  talk,  the  unworthiness  of 
'  idle  words, '  and  vacuous,  purposeless  'gossip,  the  waste  of  long 
and  aimless  letter-writing,  never  looked  so  egregious  as  to  the 
workers  who  find  every  day  too  short  for  the  glorious  and  gracious 
deeds  which  lie  waiting  for  them  on  every  hand. 

' '  But  to  help  forward  the  coming  of  Christ  into  all  depart- 
ments of  life  is,  in  its  last  analysis,  the  purpose  and  aim  of  the 
W.  C.  T.  U.  For  we  believe  this  correlation  of  New  Testament 
religion  with  philanthropy,  and  of  the  Church  with  civilization,  is 
the  perpetual  miracle  which  furnishes  the  only  sufficient  antidote 
to  current  skepticism.  Higher  toward  the  zenith  climbs  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness,  making  circle  after  circle  of  human  endeavor  and 


1 32  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

achievement  warm  and  radiant  with  the  healing  of  its  beams. 
First  of  all,  in  our  gospel  temperance  work,  this  heavenly  light 
penetrated  the  gloom  of  the  individual,  tempted  heart  (that 
smallest  circle,  in  which  all  others  are  involved),  illumined  its  dark- 
ness, melted  its  hardness,  made  it  a  sweet  and  sunny  place  —  a 
temple  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost. 

4 '  Having  thus  come  to  the  heart  of  the  drinking  man  in  the 
plenitude  of  His  redeeming  power,  Christ  entered  the  next  wider 
circle,  in  which  two  human  hearts  unite  to  form  a  home,  and  here, 
by  the  revelation  of  her  place  in  His  kingdom,  He  lifted  to  an 
equal  level  with  her  husband  the  gentle  companion  who  had  sup- 
posed herself  happy  in  being  the  favorite  vassal  of  her  liege  lord. 
'There  is  neither  male  nor  female  in  Christ  Jesus ';  this  was  the 
'  open  sesame, '  a  declaration  utterly  opposed  to  all  custom  and 
tradition;  but  so  steadily  the  light  has  shown,  and  so  kindly  has  it 
made  the  heart  of  man,  that  without  strife  of  tongues,  or  edict  of 
sovereigns,  it  is  coming  now  to  pass  that  in  proportion  as  any 
home  is  really  Christian,  the  husband  and  the  wife  are  peers  in 
dignity  and  power.  There  are  no  homes  on  earth  where  woman 
is  '  revered,  beloved  '  and  individualized  in  character  and  work  so 
thoroughly  as  the  fifty  thousand  in  America,  where  '  her  children 
rise  up  and  call  her  blessed;  her  husband  also,  and  he  praiseth 
her, '  because  of  her  part  in  the  work  of  our  W.  C.  T.  U. 

' '  Beyond  this  sweet  and  sacred  circle  where  two  hearts  grow 
to  be  one,  where  the  mystery  of  birth  and  the  hallowed  face  of 
child  and  mother  work  their  perpetual  charm,  comes  that  outer 
court  of  home,  that  third  great  circle  which  we  call  society.  Surely 
and  steadily  the  light  of  Christ  is  coming  here,  through  the  loving 
temperance  Pentecost,  to  replace  the  empty  phrase  of  punctilio  by 
earnest  words  of  cheer  and  inspiration ;  to  banish  the  unhealthful 
tyranny  of  fashion  by  enthroning  wholesome  taste  and  common 
sense;  to  drive  out  questionable  amusements  and  introduce  inno- 
cent and  delightful  pastimes;  to  exorcise  the  evil  spirit  of  gossip 
and  domesticate  helpful  and  tolerant  speech ;  nay,  more,  to  banish 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  133 

from  the  social  board  those  false  emblems  of  hospitality  and  good- 
will —  intoxicating  drinks. 

' '  Sweep  a  wider  circle  still,  and  behold  in  that  ecclesiastical 
invention  called  '  denominationalism, '  Christ  coming  by  the  union 
ot  His  handmaids  in  work  for  Him;  coming  to  put  away  the  form 
outward  and  visible  that  He  may  shed  abroad  the  grace  inward 
and  spiritual;  to  close  the  theological  disquisition  of  the  learned 
pundit,  and  open  the  Bible  of  the  humble  saint;  to  draw  away 
men's  thoughts  from  theories  of  right  living,  and  center  them  upon 
right  living  itself;  to  usher  in  the  priesthood  of  the  people,  by 
pressing  upon  the  conscience  of  each  believer  the  individual  com- 
mission, '  Go,  disciple  all  nations, '  and  emphasizing  the  individual 
promise,  '  Lo,  I  am  with  thee  always. ' 

' '  But  the  modern  temperance  movement,  born  of  Christ's 
Gospel  and  cradled  at  His  altars,  is  rapidly  filling  one  more  circle  ®f 
influence  wide  as  the  widest  zone  of  earthly  weal  or  woe,  and  that 
is  government.  '  The  government  shall  be  upon  His  shoulder. ' 
'  Unto  us  a  King  is  given.'  '  He  shall  reign  whose  right  it  is.'  '  He 
shall  not  fail,  nor  be  discouraged  until  he  hath  set  judgment  in  the 
earth. '  '  That  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should  bow,  and 
every  tongue  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God 
the  Father. '  '  Thy  kingdom  come,  thy  will  be  done  on  earth. '  Christ 
shall  reign  —  not  visibly,  but  invisibly;  not  in  form,  but  in  fact;  not 
in  substance,  but  in  essence,  and  the  day  draws  nigh !  Then  surely 
the  traffic  in  intoxicating  liquors  as  a  drink  will  no  longer  be  pro- 
tected by  the  statute  book,  the  lawyer's  plea,  the  affirmation  of  the 
witness,  and  decision  of  the  judge.  And  since  the  government  is, 
after  all,  a  circle  that  includes  all  hearts,  all  homes,  all  churches,  all 
societies,  does  it  not  seem  as  if  intelligent  loyalty  to  Christ  the  King 
would  cause  each  heart  that  loves  Him  to  feel  in  duty  bound  to  use 
all  the  power  it  could  gather  to  itself  in  helping  choose  the  framers 
of  these  more  righteous  laws?  But  let  it  be  remembered  that  for 
every  Christian  man  who  has  a  voice  in  making  and  enforcing  laws 
there  are  at  least  two  Christian  women  who  have  no  voice  at  all. 
Hence,  under  such  circumstances  as  now  exist,  His  militant  army 


i34  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

must  ever  be  powerless  to  win  those  legislative  battles  which,  more 
than  any  others,  affect  the  happiness  of  aggregate  humanity.  But 
the  light  gleams  already  along  the  sunny  hilltops  of  the  nineteenth 
century  of  grace.  Upon  those  who  in  largest  numbers  love  Him 
who  has  filled  their  hearts  with  peace  and  their  homes  with  bless- 
ing, slowly  dawns  the  consciousness  that  they  may  —  nay,  better 
still,  they  ought  to  —  ask  for  power  to  help  forward  the  coming  of 
their  Lord  in  government;  to  throw  the  safeguard  of  their  prohibi- 
tion ballots  around  those  who  have  left  the  shelter  of  their  arms 
only  to  be  entrapped  by  the  saloons  that  bad  men  legalize  and  set 
along  the  streets. 

1 '  '  But  some  doubted. ' 

' '  This  was  in  our  earlier  National  Conventions.  Almost  none 
disputed  the  value  of  this  added  weapon  in  woman's  hand  — 
indeed,  all  deemed  it  'sure  to  come.'  It  was  only  the  old,  old 
question  of  expediency ;  of  '  frightening  away  our  sisters  among  the 
more  conservative.'  But  later  on  we  asked  these  questions:  Has 
the  policy  of  silence  caused  a  great  rallying  to  our  camp  from  the 
ranks  of  the  conservative?  Do  you  know  an  instance  in  which  it 
has  augmented  your  working  force?  Are  not  all  the  women  upon 
whose  help  we  can  confidently  count,  favorable  to  the  'Do  Every- 
thing Policy,'  as  the  only  one  broad  enough  to  meet  our  hydra- 
headed  foe  ?  Have  not  the  men  of  the  liquor  traffic  said  in 
platform,  resolution,  and  secret  circular,  '  The  ballot  in  woman's 
hand  will  be  the  death  knell  of  our  trade  ? ' 

"And  so  today,  while  each  State  is  free  to  adopt  or  disavow 
the  ballot  as  a  home  protection  weapon,  and  although  the  white- 
winged  fleet  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  in  a  score  of  States  crowds  all  sail 
for  constitutional  prohibition,  to  be  followed  up  by  '  Home  Pro- 
tection, '  still  though  '  the  silver  sails  are  all  out  in  the  West, '  every 
ship  in  the  gleaming  line  is  all  the  same  a  Gospel  ship  —  an  '  old 
ship  Zion  —  Hallelujah  !  '  " 

No  setting  forth  of  the  departmental  system  of  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  would  do  it  justice  as  does  Miss  Wil- 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  135 

lard's  practical,  as  well  as  spiritual,  exposition  of  ' '  The  Crusade 
Psalm,"  the  first  Scripture  read  in  connection  with  the  Ohio 
Women's  Whisky  War. 

THE   CRUSADE   PSALM. 

'  Psalm  cxlvi.  \ 

FOUNDATION  TEXT: 

ltln  the  name  of  our  God  we  will  set  up  our  banners" — Psalm 
xx,  3. 

ORIGIN. 

Every  great  movement  has  some  one  historic  document  on 
which  it  is  based,  and  which  forms  the  foundation  of  its  ' '  Evi- 
dences."  The  Christian  Church  has  the  Bible,  the  British  Gov- 
ernment has  the  Magna  Charta,  the  American  Republic  has  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  the  colored  race  has  the  Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation,  the  temperance  world  in  general  has  the  Total 
Abstinence  Pledge,  the  Women's  Crusade  has  the  Crusade  Psalm. 

The  Crusade  Psalm  has  in  it  but  ten  verses,  and  yet  it  gives 
us  the  keynote,  the  rallying  cry,  the  prophetic  exhortation,  the 
plan  of  work,  and  the  song  of  victory  in  our  holy  war. 

KEYNOTE  : 

' ' Praise  ye  the  Lord.  Praise  the  Lord,  O  my  soul. " —  Psalm 
cxlvi,  i. 

This  is  the  keynote.  The  word  praise  is  translated  in  the 
margin  by  that  magnificent  marching  word  of  the  Hebrews,  Hal- 
lelujah; so  that  the  more  correct  rendering  would  be, 

"  Hallelujah  to  the  Lord  ;  Hallelujah  to  the  Lord,  O  my  soul  ;  while  I  live 
will  I  sing  Hallelujah  to  the  Lord,  I  will  sing  Hallelujah  unto  my  God  while  I 
have  any  being." 

A  more  jubilant  strain  never  clashed  its  golden  cymbals  on  the 
ear  of  the  triumphant  host  in  the  midst  of  the  great  day  of  rejoic- 
ing at  the  dedication  of  the  temple;  a  more  jubilant  strain  was  not 
sung  by  Miriam  and  her  maidens  when  the  people  of  God  had 
escaped  forever  out  of  the  hands  of  their  oppressors;  nay,  verily, 


i36  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

the  Crusade  Psalm  utters  a  higher  note  because  its  Laus  Deo  came 
before  a  single  stroke  of  work  had  been  wrought,  or  a  single  victory 
achieved.  It  was  the  keynote.  It  set  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
the  White  Ribbon  women  at  concert  pitch.  It  claimed  by  faith 
that  which  was  to  be  slowly  and  patiently  wrought  out  in  deeds. 
It  was  the  Jericho  shout  over  again,  only  here  the  voices  were 
soprano  rather  than  bass  ;  nay,  these  were  the  musical  tones  of 
the  home  rather  than  the  discordant  blast  of  the  ram's  horn,  or 
the  clash  of  broken  pitchers  in  the  darkness. 

It  is  a  principle  of  Psychology  no  less  than  of  Philosophy  and 
Religion  that  the  mental  and  spiritual  attitudes  of  good  cheer  and 
heavenly  expectation  are  the  only  ones  that  will  ever  claim,  pro- 
mote and  capture  victory.  All  leaders  have  been  optimists  —  if 
there  are  lions  in  the  way  they  do  not  see  them,  for  their  eyes  are 
lifted  ' '  to  the  hills,  whence  cometh  their  help. " 

In  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  it  has  been  a 
custom  in  many  of  the  conventions  to  urge  upon  the  workers  the 
adoption  of  this  pledge:  "  I  hereby  solemnly  promise,  by  the  help 
of  God,  that  I  will  seek  to  make  it  a  rule  of  my  life  not  to  speak 
discouraging  words  about  the  work,  or  disparaging  words  about 
the  workers. " 

It  is  only  by  preserving  this  mental  and  moral  attitude  toward 
those  about  us  that  we  can  ever  hope  to  win,  for  God's  laws  written 
in  our  constitution  have  put  an  everlasting  ban  upon  those  who 
hold  lugubrious  views  of  life  or  disheartening  opinions  about  the 
holy  war  in  which  they  are  enlisted  soldiers.  Whether  we  realize 
it  or  not,  to  do  this  is  to  be  a  traitor.  We  are  in  an  army  where 
' '  to  doubt  would  be  disloyalty,  to  falter  would  be  sin. "  Let  us 
not,  then,  pipe  on  our  own  little  reed  the  discontent  that  the  devil 
may  whisper  because  it  is  his  tune,  but  let  us  join  our  voices  in  the 
Hallelujah  Chorus  which  calls  bravely  out:  "In  the  name  of  our 
God  we  have  set  up  our  banners. " 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  137 

EXHORTATION  : 

"Put  not  your  trust  in  princes,  nor  in  the  son  of  man,  in  whom 
there  is  no  help. 

''His  breath goeth  forth;  he  returneth  to  his  earth;  in  that  very 
day  his  thoughts  perish. 

'  'Happy  is  he  that  hath  the  God  of  Jacob  for  his  help,  whose 
hope  is  in  the  Lord  his  God; 

' '  Which  made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea  and  all  that  therein,  is; 
which  keepeth  truth  forever." — Psalm  cxlvi. ,  3-6. 

This  is  the  Exhortation,  and  some  have  said  that  it  is  in  direct 
opposition  to  the  genius  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union,  which  seeks  to  the  utmost  to  enlist  the  ' '  princes  "  in  Church 
and  State,  and  the  ' '  son  of  man  "  who  forms  the  rank  and  file  of 
that  procession  of  political  power  which  we  expect  some  day  to  see 
added  to  the  procession  of  the  White  Ribbon.  But  from  one  end 
of  the  good  Book  to  the  other  we  are  taught  that  God  works  by 
means.  Incarnation  is  the  unchanging  method  of  that  progressive 
revelation  by  which  we  study  Him  in  the  Bible  of  revelation,  the 
Bible  of  nature  and  the  Bible  of  humanity. 

To  illustrate  this  in  a  homely  fashion,  consider  the  telegraph 
poles  that  perpetually  run  and  race  with  the  railroad  train.  How 
inconsequent,  even  grotesque,  are  these  tall  posts  until  one  knows 
that  across  their  tapering  tops  is  laid  a  wire,  in  itself  equally  incon- 
sequent, but  which  is  connected  with  an  electric  battery  so  that 
the  dull  wire  transmits  messages  of  incalculable  importance  to  the 
world.  We  believe  that  in  like  manner  society  and  government 
are  but  the  connecting  wires  of  God's  great  telegraphic  system, 
along  which  He  sends  the  shock  of  power  from  His  own  heart. 
They  are  but  the  channels,  conduits  and  conductors  of  His  thought, 
purpose  and  affection. 

If  we  put  our  trust  in  God,  happy  are  we,  for  "He  made 
heaven  and  earth,  the  sea  and  all  that  therein  is  ;  He  keepeth 
truth  forever  ;"  and  the  ' '  princes, "  and  the  ' '  son  of  man  "  shall 
yet  do  His  will,  so  that  His  kingdom  shall  come  upon  the  earth. 


,38  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

He  made  the  earth,  and  He  will  not  always  suffer  it  to  be  unre- 
deemed. He  made  the  earth  just  as  truly  as  He  made  the 
heavens,  and  because  these  things  are  so  we  may  well  take  for  our 
keynote,  "Hallelujah  to  the  Lord."  "Every  plant  that  my 
Heavenly  Father  hath  not  planted  shall  be  rooted  up,"  says 
Christ.  We  have  a  ' '  sure  word  of  testimony, "  so  we  fight  ' '  not 
as  one  that  beateth  the  air."  "We  know  in  whom  we  have 
believed. " 

The  word  "  help  "  (in  the  third  verse,  "  in  whom  there  is  not 
help, ")  is  more  literally  translated  in  the  margin  as  ' '  salvation, " 
and  as  the  keynote  of  the  Crusade  army  is  Hallelujah,  so  is  its 
keyword  Salvation.  It  is  not  help  alone  we  seek  to  give,  for  help 
is  often  both  inadequate  and  temporary,  but  salvation  saves  ;  sal- 
vation knows  no  palliatives  ;  salvation  is  thorough-going  out  and 
out ;  it  is  indeed  ideal  ;  it  is  the  word  of  faith  ;  it  is  the  central 
thought  of  revelation.  We  must  use  that  magic  word  in  no  dimin- 
ished sense,  but  spread  it  to  the  utmost  of  its  scope,  and  that 
makes  it  wide  as  the  world,  high  as  the  hope  of  a  saint,  and  deep 
as  the  depths  of  a  drunkard's  despair. 

A  famous  minister  once  said  to  me,  ' '  If  you  would  confine 
your  ministrations  to  the  reformation  of  drunkards,  I  could  go  with 
you,  for  I  believe  that  is  according  to  the  Gospel  plan  ;  but  when 
you  take  up  such  side  issues  as  prohibition  and  the  woman's  ballot, 
my  conscience  obliges  me  to  withdraw  from  the  movement. " 

From  the  White  Ribbon  point  of  view  this  good  man  was 
wofully  deluded.  He  took  that  great  word  "salvation,"  broad 
enough  to  flash  across  the  whole  heavens,  and  shut  it  up  in  the 
cell  of  his  own  preconceived  notions. 

But  what  does  salvation  mean  to  us  ?  We  believe  in  salva- 
tion first  of  all  for  the  individual  through  a  change  of  heart, 
"repentance  toward  God  and  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ";  but 
we  believe  that  the  drunkard  might  have  been  saved  from  drinking 
if  he  had  been  wisely  drilled  and  disciplined  when  he  was  a  little 
fellow.  We  believe  that  this  salvation  might  have  come  to  him 
in  the  quiet  temple  of  the  schoolhouse  where  the  scientific  tern- 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  139 

perance  text-book  taught  him  a  ' '  thus  saith  Nature,  thus  saith 
Reason,  thus  saith  the  Lord  "  for  total  abstinence. 

We  believe  there  is  salvation  for  society  from  drink  through 
the  total  abstinence  propaganda  and  the  Pauline  doctrine  of  not 
making  ' '  my  brother  to  offend. " 

We  believe  there  is  the  salvation  of  God  for  the  government 
in  universal  prohibition  of  the  liquor  traffic,  the  gambling  house, 
the  haunt  of  shame. 

We  believe  there  is  the  salvation  of  God  for  politics  in  the 
home  vote  for  two  which  shall  conduct  to  a  white  life  for  two,  for 
we  believe  that  "two  heads  in  counsel-"  are  the  best  working  forces 
in  the  world  for  God  and  Home  and  Every  Land. 

PLAN  OF  WORK: 

"  The  Lord  executeth  judgment  for  the  oppressed;  the  Lord 
givethfood  to  the  hungry.  The  Lord  looseth  the  prisoners  : 

"  The  Lord  openeth  the  eyes  of  the  blind ;  the  Lord  raiseth  them 
that  are  bowed  down  :  The  Lord  loveth  the  righteous  : 

' '  The  Lord  preserveth  the  strangers  :  He  relieveth  the  fatherless 
and  widow :  biit  the  way  of  the  wicked  He  turneth  upside  down. " 
Psalm  cxlvi,  7-9. 

Now  comes  the  plan  of  work  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union. 

More  frequently  than  I  have  ever  uttered  any  other  single 
exhortation  to  my  comrades,  except  that  they  should  seek  to  be 
given  up  to  the  indwelling  of  the  Spirit,  has  been  the  exhortation 
that  they  should  give  their  best  and  keenest  thought  to  the  three 
verses  given  above,  for  if  its  members  would  do  this  no  local  union 
need  ever  be  at  a  loss  as  to  "  the  next  thing  "  that  it  ought  to 
undertake. 

In  the  reading  and  study  of  these  verses,  freighted  like  a  boat 
carried  to  the  water's  edge  by  the  greatness  of  its  cargo,  we  should 
emphasize  in  every  instance  those  words,  ' '  The  Lord. "  I  have 
heard  the  psalm  read  innumerable  times  with  this  Name  of 
names  hurried  over  in  the  most  casual  manner,  but  it  is  the  key  to 


14o  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

the  position.  "The  Lord  executeth  judgment  for  the  oppressed," 
but  He  does  so  through  courts  and  customs  and  through  interven- 
tion of  those  who  have  His  love  in  their  hearts. 

For  instance  :  In  the  first  year  of  my  Temperance  work  I 
remember  reaching  home  late  in  the  evening  from  a  trip,  and  say- 
ing to  mother  as  I  bade  her  goodnight,  ' '  I  am  going  to  Niles, 
Michigan,  tomorrow,  and  must  be  up  and  off  early,  so  do  not  try  to 
see  me  in  the  morning."  Whereupon  with  that  wise  smile  I  so 
tenderly  recall,  she  replied,  ' '  You  will  be  off  early,  indeed,  if  you 

get  ahead  of  me,  for  I  take  the  five  o'clock  train  to where 

several  of  the  officers  of  our  Evanston  W.  C.  T.  U.  (she  was  then 
president)  are  going  to  stand  by  a  poor  woman  whose  husband 
whipped  her  when  he  was  drunk,  and  who  said  if  we  would  rally 
around  her  she  would  then  have  the  courage  to  testify  against 
him  under  the  Civil  Damage  Act."  That  was  mother's  practical 
interpretation  of  the  plan  of  work  in  our  Crusade  Psalm  where  it 
says  "The  Lord  executeth  judgment  for  the  oppressed. "  To  my 
mind,  whatever  relates  to  the  protection  of  the  defenseless  who 
come  within  the  circle  of  our  knowledge  is  a  part  of  our  plan  of 
work  under  its  first  specification.  The  families  of  those  who  drink 
are  the  most  likely  to  suffer  from  the  conduct  of  those  who  ' '  are 
not  themselves, "  but  are  ' '  crazy  on  purpose, "  and  I  have  always 
felt  that  we  should  regard  them  as  our  special  charge.  In  many 
States,  homes  for  the  children  of  the  drunkard  have  been  estab- 
lished by  our  societies,  and  our  department  of  ' '  Homes  for 
Homeless  Children "  is  meant  to  help  cover  this  ground.  The 
' '  Department  of  Mercy "  (for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  to  ani- 
mals) comes  under  the  same  general  classification. 

The  Lord  giveth  food  to  the  hungry. 

I  once  heard  a  stirring  exposition  of  this  verse  from  a  famous 
Crusader  who  said,  ' '  We  women  were  so  hungry  for  this  Temper- 
ance work  that  God  gave  it  to  us  in  His  own  good  time!  "  but  the 
larger  scope  of  the  passage  includes  every  form  of  service  that  we 
can  render  to  those  who  are  hungry  in  body  or  soul.  The  Saxon 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  141 

word  "  Lady  "  means  "  Giver  of  bread";  we  must  be  that,  but  we 
ought  to  be  much  more.  ' '  Giver  of  the  bread  of  life  "  should  be  a 
definition  including  the  loaf  in  one  hand  and  the  New  Testament 
and  Total  Abstinence  pledge  in  the  other. 

The  Lord  looseth  the  prisoners. 

The  great  work  for  the  reformation  of  drinking  men  and 
women  comes  in  here;  the  Blue  Ribbon  movement,  the  Red  Rib- 
bon movement,  the  Good  Templars,  Sons  of  Temperance,  and 
other  societies,  the  Homes  for  inebriates,  the  various  ' '  Cures  " 
founded  for  the  reformation  of  the  drunkard,  but  most  of  all  that 
4 '  loosing  of  the  prisoners, "  which  comes  from  the  ' '  expulsive  power 
of  a  Divine  affection,"  so  that  a  New  Testament  replaces  the  flask 
in  the  side  pocket  of  the  drinking  man,  and  he  bends  upon  his  knees 
in  prayer  instead  of  bowing  hopelessly  over  the  bar.  No  society 
ever  did  more  for  the  reformation  of  the  drunkard  than  the  W.  C. 
T.  U.  We  have  tried  all  means;  we  must  ignore  none,  but  let  us 
always  exalt  ' '  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  everyone  that 
believeth, "  remembering  Him  who  said,  ' '  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up, 
will  draw  all  men  unto  me. " 

Our  work  for  the  prisoners  includes  not  only  those  who  are 
under  the  bond  of  drink,  but  those  who  are  prisoners  of  the 
tobacco  habit,  the  habit  of  personal  impurity,  the  gambling  pas- 
sion, or  any  of  those  curses  of  life  which  center  in  the  dramshop; 
nor  must  we  forget  that  there  is  now  hardly  a  prison,  jail  or  peniten- 
tiary between  the  oceans  that  is  not  visited  by  the  White  Ribbon 
women  with  the  Gospel  in  their  hands,  the  helpful  Bible-reading, 
the  leaflet.  The  Union  Signal  and  The  Young  Crusader,  and  the 
little  bunch  of  posies  with  its  Scripture  text,  through  which  we 
often  find  the  heart  we  should  otherwise  have  missed.  Our 
Flower  Mission  department  fits  into  this  niche  of  our  ' '  plan  " 
more  fully,  perhaps,  than  any  other. 

The  Lord  openeth  the  eyes  of  the  blind. 

When  we  read  the  Scripture  we  are  inclined  to  give  it  away 
with  a  liberal  hand  to  those  about  us;  indeed  there  is  nothing  with 


i42  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

which  we  are  so  generous.     We  hope  that  Mr.  will  take  note 

of  that  passage,  "he  is  a  stingy  man  and  needs  to  listen  to  it." 

We  hope  that  Mrs.  will  ' '  take  heed  to  her  gabbling  tongue, " 

and  so  on  and  so  on.  But  for  myself  I  have  always  felt  that  the 
plan  of  work  set  forth  in  this  passage,  ' '  The  Lord  openeth  the 
eyes  of  the  blind, "  applied  very  particularly  to  my  own  case,  for 
though  I  early  became  a  member  of  the  church  of  God,  and  was 
brought  up  a  teetotaler,  my  blind  eyes  had  not  been  opened  to  see 
the  duty  and  privilege  of  a  Christian  woman  to  be  an  active  worker 
in  the  temperance  reform  until  the  great  Crusade  in  the  West, 
wheeling  onward  in  its  mighty  course,  caught  me  up  in  one  of  its 
outermost  eddies  on  an  Illinois  prairie,  and  brought  me  forever- 
more  to  the  goodly  fellowship  of  those  whose  eyes  were  opened  to 
see  that  ' '  Christianity  applied  "  is  the  only  thing  that  will  bring 
salvation  and  set  the  Hallelujah  Chorus  rolling  around  the  world. 
To  open  the  eyes  of  the  blind  we  needed  the  Woman's  Temperance 
Publishing  Association,  with  its  great  weekly  newspaper,  its  books 
and  pamphlets,  its  leaflets  and  responsive  readings,  its  prohibition 
literature  of  every  sort  and  kind,  its  social  purity  department,  its 
woman  suffrage  leaflets,  its  well  filled  and  fitted  arsenal  of  temper- 
ance weapons.  If  the  local  unions  did  nothing  else  but  exploit 
these  leaves,  saturated  through  and  through  as  they  have  been  by 
the  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  that  would  be  work  enough  to  make  their 
record  hallowed.  The  press  department,  seeking  to  reach  and 
utilize  the  plant  of  the  newspaper,  both  religious  and  secular,  in 
every  town  and  village,  is  one  of  our  mightiest  engines  of  power. 
The  Scientific  Temperance  Instruction  for  the  children  and  the 
youth  in  colleges  has  no  peer  in  power,  but  it  rests  largely  with 
the  local  union  to  make  that  department  a  success  or  a  failure. 
The  Young  Women's  Work,  the  Loyal  Temperance  Legion,  and 
the  Department  of  Mercy  are  skillful  openers  of  "the  eyes  of 
the  blind."  What  is  the  local  union  doing  to  build  up  these 
departments  into  beautiful  allies  ?  The  study  of  hygiene,  physical 
culture  and  sanitary  cookery,  the  splendid  outlook  of  the  Sunday- 
school  work,  the  circulation  of  literature  among  foreigners,  the 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  143 

presentation  of  our  cause  to  influential  bodies,  and  its  relation  to 
capital  and  labor;  the  school  of  parliamentary  usage,  all  these 
come  under  the  head  of  ' '  opening  the  eyes  of  the  blind. " 

Here,  too,  belong  our  great  affiliated  interests.  The  Woman's 
Temple,  that  object  lesson  in  brick  and  mortar  of  woman's  faith 
and  prayer;  the  Woman's  Temperance  Publishing  Association, 
that  prophecy  of  her  future  power;  and  the  National  Temperance 
Hospital,  which  is  proving  daily  to  a  gainsaying  world  that  alcohol 
is  not  an  essential  remedy  for  all  the  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to. 
What  has  so  fully  opened  the  blind  eyes  of  the  world  to  woman's 
work  and  worth  as  these  great  enterprises? 

The  "opening  of  the  eyes  of  the  blind,"  comes  not  only 
through  the  varied  channels  of  which  an  outline  has  been  given, 
but  the  printed  page  is  strongly  reinforced  by  means  of  the  ear- 
nest, logical  and  persuasive  voice. 

The  Lord  raiseth  them  that  are  bowed  down. 

This  includes  our  work  for  the  defective,  dependent  and  delin- 
quent classes.  The  departments  are  so  numerous  that  I  will  not 
undertake  to  name  them  all.  In  our  Annual  Leaflet  all  may  read 
the  list  of  those  blessed  endeavors  grouped  under  the  head  of 
evangelistic  and  social  work. 

The  Lord  loveth  the  righteous. 

It  seems  as  if  this  declaration  were  interpolated  as  a  note  of 
affectionate  encouragement  to  those  who,  notwithstanding  their 
failures  and  faults,  nevertheless  feel  in  their  inmost  souls  that  they 
do  seek  righteousness.  Let  any  among  us  who  are  downcast 
remember  that  the  will  is  the  king-bolt  of  the  faculties,  and  if  the 
will  is  set  toward  God  we  must  not  be  discouraged  though  the 
emotion  often  fail  us. 

We  judge  the  direction  of  a  stream  not  from  its  shallows  but 
by  its  current,  not  by  its  eddies,  but  by  that  deep  and  steady  trend 
that  bears  its  waters  straight  onward  to  the  sea. 


i44  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

The  Lord preserveth  the  strangers. 

To  my  mind  this  plan  of  work  includes  all  those  efforts,  varied 
and  manifold,  whereby  White  Ribbon  women  have  merited  the 
characterization  given  them  by  a  desolate  woman  whose  son  they 
saved  from  the  death  trap  of  a  village  on  the  far  frontier,  the  local 
society  away  yonder  having  been  written  to  by  the  local  society  in 
her  own  town.  She  said,  "What  it  amounts  to  is  that  as  you 
have  ten  thousand  local  unions,  every  boy  in  this  country  has  ten 
times  ten  thousand  mothers  willing  to  look  after  him  and  help  him 
to  the  good. "  The  temperance  hotel,  the  temperance  restaurant, 
the  club,  the  Gospel  temperance  meeting,  the  homelike  mass- 
meeting,  the  sociable,  the  red-letter  days  and  the  ingenious,  witty 
inventions  of  our  wise  "Y"  societies  for  the  purpose  of  helping 
young  men  to  overcome  temptation  —  all  these  are  specifications  of 
that  branch  of  our  plan  of  work  through  which  "He  preserveth 
the  strangers." 

He  relieveth  the  fatherless  and  the  widow. 

In  our  work  we  give  a  broader  meaning,  for  we  deal  with  those 
who  are  worse  than  widowed  and  more  forlorn  than  if  they  had 
been  fatherless.  This  line  of  effort  takes  us  into  the  disintegrated, 
dismantled  homes  that  are  the  necessary  outcome  of  the  liquor 
traffic.  Industrial  homes  for  boys  and  girls  have  been  founded  in 
many  of  the  States  through  the  efforts  of  our  society,  and  ought  to 
be  in  all.  There  is  not  a  State  or  Territory  in  the  Union  in  which 
the  united  efforts  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  for  a  single  year  would  not 
suffice  to  found  such  an  institution.  Among  the  happiest  incidents 
of  the  twelve  years  that  I  was  continually  on  the  war-path  helping 
to  found  the  society,  I  reckon  those  when  I  have  been  present  at 
the  laying  of  the  corner  stone  of  some  beneficent  institution, 
where  the  trowel  has  been  placed  in  the  hand  of  the  State  Presi- 
dent of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  by  good  men  who  were  our  helpers  in  the 
legislature  and  outside  of  it,  and  who  felt  a  pride  in  having  women 
officiate  on  the  occasion,  because  they  knew  these  women  were  the 
real  workers  who  had  won  from  the  powers  that  be  the  wherewithal 


ORGANIZER  AND  LEADER  145 

to  bless  tempted  lives  by  a  new  institution  which  would  put  honor- 
able bread-winning  weapons  in  the  hands  of  those  whose  home 
help  had  failed  them  utterly. 

The  way  of  the  wicked  He  turneth  upside  down. 

This  is  the  climax,  the  keystone  of  the  arch  of  our  beautiful 
and  holy  endeavor.  It  means  prohibition  by  law,  prohibition  by 
politics,  prohibition  by  woman's  ballot.  In  Ohio  the  heroic  band 
of  veterans  who  constitute  the  State  W.  C.  T.  U.  have  taken  this 
passage  as  their  motto,  and  they  are  entitled  to  it  as  the  leaders  of 
our  growing  host,  for  they  have  ' '  borne  and  labored,  and  had 
patience, "  since  the  pentecost  of  God  fell  on  them  in  those  fifty 
days  of  the  Crusade  which,  in  the  winter  of  1873-74,  routed  the 
liquor  traffic  ' '  horse,  foot  and  dragoons  "  in  two  hundred  and  fifty 
towns  and  villages.  The  figure  in  the  passage  is  complete,  for 
"the  way  of  the  wicked"  is  to  be  "turned  upside  down";  then 
the  traffic  is  to  be  completely  overthrown,  and  nothing  less  will 
ever  satisfy  the  World's  White  Ribbon  Host.  ' '  The  Old  Guard 
never  surrenders, "  for  while  we  have  no  harsh  criticism  for  good 
people  who  adopt  less  drastic  methods  of  reform,  the  White  Rib- 
bon Women  will  say  at  last,  as  they  felt  called  to  say  at  first  of 
prohibition  :  ' '  Here  I  stand,  I  can  do  no  other,  God  help  me. 
Amen."  And  we  do  this  because  we  believe  that  what  is  phys- 
ically wrong  can  never  be  morally  right;  what  is  morally  wrong 
can  never  be  legally  right ;  what  is  legally  wrong  can  never  be 
politically  right. 

SONG  OF  VICTORY: 

The  Lord  shall  reign  forever,  even  thy  God,  O  Zion,  unto  all 
generations.  Praise  ye  the  Lord. 

This  is  our  song  of  victory  :  ' '  The  Lord  shall  reign  forever. " 
It  is  beginning  to  seem  nearer  in  its  fulfillment  than  when,  twenty- 
one  years  ago,  we  first  raised  its  notes  in  faith.  The  White  Ribbon 
has  already  ' '  conquered  many  nations. "  That  crusade  fire,  kin- 
dled of  God,  has  spread,  till  in  more  than  forty  countries  it  is 

10 


146  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

burning  today.  The  great  Petition,  with  its  seven  and  one-half 
million  signatures  and  attestations  asking  for  the  abolition  of  the 
liquor  traffic  in  all  nations,  is  soon  to  be  carried  round  the  world. 
The  World's  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  with  its  glo- 
rious motto,  ' '  For  God  and  Home  and  Every  Land, "  is  an  assured 
fact  —  an  element  in  the  world's  regeneration  which  can  never  be 
overlooked. 

The  noontide  hour  of  prayer,  like  England's  drum-beat,  circles 
the  globe.  Everywhere  and  at  every  hour  there  are  hearts  uplifted 
in  petition  to  Him  who  shall  ' '  reign  forever. "  He  is  reigning  now 
in  the  brain  and  heart  of  those  who  are  consecrated  to  Him  in  the 
service  of  humanity.  He  to  whom  one  day  is  a  thousand  years, 
and  a  thousand  years  as  one  day  ;  He  who  sees  the  end  from  the 
beginning  and  the  beginning  from  the  end,  looks  down  upon  the 
earth,  and  there  is  not  a  saloon,  a  gambling  house,  a  haunt  of 
infamy  anywhere  to  be  found,  so  that  from  God's  point  of  view  all 
that  we  see  has  already  come  to  pass  and  it  is  for  us  to  behold  the 
same  picture  in  the  outlook  of  our  Christian  faith,  and  to  make 
true,  so  far  as  in  us  lies,  on  the  plane  of  material  cause  and  effect 
in  the  everyday  world,  that  which,  in  our  faith-filled  moments,  we 
have  beheld  on  the  Mount  of  Vision. 

"  Faith,  mighty  faith,  the  promise  sees 

And  looks  to  that  alone  ; 
Laughs  at  impossibilities 

And  cries,   It  shall  be  done. 


CHAPTER   IX 

FOUNDER     OF     THE    WORLD'S    WOMAN'S    CHRISTIAN     TEMPERANCE    UNION 

^RANGES  E.  WILLARD  was  a  patriot  of  patriots.  Love 
for  her  fatherland,  breathed  into  her  as  a  child,  waxed 
stronger  as  the  years  passed  by  until  it  became  a  passion, 
and  her  home-loving  heart  turned  more  and  more  to  her  ' '  ain 
countrie. "  But  she  could  never  be  a  patriot  in  the  sense  in  which 
love  for  one's  own  excludes  love  for  all  other  countries,  and  as  her 
affection  for  her  native  land  deepened  and  broadened,  it  included 
all  other  lands  until  she  exultantly  heralded  the  coming  day  when 
Humanity  will  recognize  its  brotherhood  not  in  word  only,  but  in 
deed  —  when  "the  parliament  of  man,  the  federation  of  the  world  " 
shall  be  more  than  a  poet's  dream  —  a  gloriously  established  fact. 
Miss  Willard's  first  public  mention  of  her  aspiration  toward 
a  world-wide  organization  of  Christian  women  was  made  in  1875,  in 
Our  Union,  then  the  official  organ  of  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U. 
But  the  time  was  evidently  not  ripe  for  such  a  movement.  Seven 
years  later,  in  1883,  Miss  Willard  wrote:  "On  an  organizing  trip 
to  the  Pacific  Coast  and  the  Puget  Sound  region  we  visited  the 
famous  '  Chinatown '  of  San  Francisco,  saw  the  opium  den  in  all 
its  loathsome  completeness  standing  next  door  to  the  house  of 
shame.  Reputable  Chinese  women  were  not  allowed  to  accom- 
pany their  husbands  to  California,  but  here  were  Chinese  girls,  one 
in  each  of  many  small  cabins  with  sliding  doors  and  windows  on 
the  street,  constituting  the  most  flagrantly  flaunted  temptation  that 
we  had  ever  witnessed.  In  presence  of  these  two  object  lessons, 
the  result  of  occidental  avarice  and  oriental  degradation,  there 
came  to  me  a  distinct  illumination  resulting  in  this  solemn  decision: 

147 


I48  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

'  But  for  the  intrusion  of  the  sea,  the  shores  of  China  and  the  far 
East  would  be  part  and  parcel  of  our  land.  We  are  one  world  of 
tempted  humanity.  The  mission  of  the  White  Ribbon  women  is 
to  organize  the  motherhood  of  the  world  for  the  peace  and  purity, 
the  protection  and  exaltation  of  its  homes.  We  must  send  forth  a 
clear  call  to  our  sisters  yonder,  and  our  brothers,  too.  We  must 
be  no  longer  hedged  about  by  the  artificial  boundaries  of  states  and 
nations  ;  we  must  utter,  as  women,  what  good  and  great  men  long 
ago  declared  as  their  watchword  :  ' '  The  whole  world  is  my  parish 
and  to  do  good  my  religion. 

' '  In  my  Annual  Address  the  next  autumn  at  Detroit,  this, 
which  I  believe  to  be  one  of  those  revelations  from  God  that  come 
to  us  all  in  hours  of  special  spiritual  uplift,  was  frankly  placed 
before  my  comrades  who,  although  they  had  no  special  enthusiasm, 
agreed  to  have  the  five  General  Officers  constitute  a  committee  to 
see  what  could  be  done.  Two  months  later,  Mrs.  Mary  Clement 
Leavitt,  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  who  was  already  one  of  our 
National  Organizers,  and  who  was  on  her  way  to  the  Pacific  Coast 
when  the  sights  of  San  FrancisCo  had  burned  themselves  into  my 
brain,  had  accepted  a  commission  to  make  a  tour  of  reconnoissance 
around  the  world A  year  after  Mrs.  Leavitt's  depart- 
ure, while  following  her  in  my  thought,  I  read  a  book  on  the  opium 
trade  in  India  and  China,  and  under  the  impulse  of  its  unspeakable 
recitals  I  wrote  the  Polyglot  Petition,  feeling  that  she  must  have 
not  only  the  Crusade  story  to  tell,  with  its  sober  second  thought  of 
organization  under  the  W.  C.  T.  U.,  the  plan  of  organization  to 
describe,  the  white  ribbon  to  pin  above  ten  thousand  faithful 
women's  hearts,  the  noon  hour  of  prayer  to  impress  upon  their 
spirits  the  sense  of  that  divine  impulse  which  alone  can  give  an 
enduring  enthusiasm  in  any  cause  —  but  she  must  speak  to  them 
of  something  to  be  done,  and  to  be  done  at  once,  in  which  all  could 
alike  engage  in  England,  America,  the  Oriental  nations,  the  islands 
of  the  sea  and,  so  far  as  possible,  in  the  continent  of  Europe,  whose 
great  wine-growing  countries  render  it  the  least  and  last  of  ail  in 
Temperance  reform.  A  petition  against  the  liquor  traffic  and  the 


FOUNDER   OF   WORLD'S   W.  C  T.  U.  149 

opium  trade  asking  that  the  statutes  of  the  world  should  be  lifted  to 
the  level  of  Christian  morals  realized  to  my  thought  '  the  tie  that 
binds '  thousands  of  hearts  and  hands  in  one  common  work,  for 
the  uplift  of  humanity,  and  included  that  'White  Life  for  Two,' 
which  has  since  become  an  integral  part  of  our  work." 

The  Round-the-World  White  Ribbon  Missionaries  who  have 
since  gone  out  under  the  banner  of  the  World's  W.  C.  T.  U.  are 
Miss  Jessie  Ackermann,  of  California,  who  honeycombed  Austral- 
asia with  local  Unions,  federating  them  into  a  National  W.  C.  T. 
U.  of  their  own,  of  which  she  became  President;  she  also  traversed 
all  the  Oriental  countries,  and  in  her  seven  years  of  journeying 
covered  a  distance  nearly  equal  to  seven  times  round  the  world; 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  Wheeler  Andrew  and  Dr.  Kate  C.  Bushnell,  of 
Evanston,  Illinois,  whose  work  resulted  in  the  breaking  down  of  the 
system  of  legalized  vice  in  the  Indian  Empire  and  brought  to  light 
the  hidden  things  of  darkness  in  the  opium  trade  of  India  and 
China;  Miss  Mary  Allen  West,  of  Illinois,  who  fell  at  her  post  in 
far-away  Japan  after  a  few  weeks  of  heroic  exertion,  leaving  a 
memory  hallowed  by  all  good  people  in  the  beautiful  Empire ;  Miss 
Clara  Parrish,  the  first  missionary  who  has  gone  out  from  the  ranks 
of  the  young  women  and  who  has  taken  up  the  work  where  Miss 
West  laid  it  down;  Miss  Alice  Palmer,  who  remained  nearly  three 
years  in  South  Africa,  placing  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  of  that  great  coun- 
try on  a  firm  and  enduring  basis;  and  Mrs.  J.  K.  Barney,  of  Rhode 
Island,  who  has  just  returned  from  a  trip  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands, 
Australasia,  Ceylon  and  the  Holy  Land.  Several  others  are  under 
appointment,  and  the  world's  Union  is  now  organized  in  fifty 
nations  —  in  America  (North  and  South),  Europe,  Asia,  Africa, 
Australia,  and  many  islands  of  the  sea. 

Our  leader,  to  whom  belonged  from  first  to  last  the  inspiration 
and  the  plan  of  this  great  society,  was  long  ago  described  in  thq 
words  of  the  apostle,  '  'Always  [she  was]  looking  for  and  hastening 
unto  the  coming  of  the  day  of  our  Lord. " 

The  Polyglot  Petition  is  a  notable  instance  of  her  power  to 
pierce  the  future  and  her  ability  to  plan  for  generations  yet  unborn. 


I5o  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Miss  Willard  named  this  document  "The  Polyglot  Petition  for 
Home  Protection, "  and  addressed  it,  ' '  To  the  Governments  of  the 
World  (Collectively  and  Severally.)"  The  following  is  its  text: 

' l  Honored  Rulers,  Representatives,  and  Brothers: 

"We,  your  petitioners,  although  belonging  to  the  physically 
weaker  sex,  are  strong  of  heart  to  love  our  homes,  our  native  land, 
and  the  world's  family  of  nations.  We  know  that  clear  brains  and 
pure  hearts  make  honest  lives  and  happy  homes,  and  that  by  these 
the  nations  prosper  and  the  time  is  brought  nearer  when  the  world 
shall  be  at  peace.  We  know  that  indulgence  in  alcohol  and  opium, 
and  in  other  vices  which  disgrace  our  social  life,  makes  misery  for 
all  the  world,  and  most  of  all  for  us  and  for  our  children.  We 
know  that  stimulants  and  opiates  are  sold  under  legal  guarantees 
which  make  the  governments  partners  in  the  traffic  by  accepting 
as  revenue  a  portion  of  the  profits,  and  we  know  with  shame  that 
they  are  often  forced  by  treaty  upon  populations  either  ignorant 
or  unwilling.  We  know  that  the  law  might  do  much  now  left 
undone  to  raise  the  moral  tone  of  society  and  render  vice  difficult. 
We  have  no  power  to  prevent  these  great  iniquities,  beneath  which 
the  whole  world  groans,  but  you  have  power  to  redeem  the  honor 
of  the  nations  from  an  indefensible  complicity.  We,  therefore, 
come  to  you  with  the  united  voices  of  representative  women  of 
every  land,  beseeching  you  to  raise  the  standard  of  the  law  to  that 
of  Christian  morals,  to  strip  away  the  safeguards  and  sanctions 
of  the  State  from  the  drink  traffic  and  the  opium  trade,  and  to 
protect  our  homes  by  the  total  prohibition  of  these  curses  of  civili- 
zation throughout  all  the  territory  over  which  your  Government 
extends. " 

This  petition,  written  in  Miss  Willard's  workshop  in  Evanston 
in  the  year  1884,  was  first  presented  to  a  convention  by  Mrs.  Mary 
Bannister  Willard,  at  the  International  Temperance  Congress  in 
Antwerp,  Belgium,  September  12,  1885.  At  the  first  convention 
of  the  world's  W.  C.  T.  U.,  its  significant  folds  draped  the  walls 
of  historic  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston,  and  in  Tremont  Temple  during 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  151 

the  session  of  the  National  Convention  immediately  following. 
Its  first  public  presentation  was  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  February 
J5>  1895,  where  it  decorated  the  great  Convention  Hall  holding 
seven  thousand  persons.  Miss  Willard's  masterly  address  on  that 
occasion,  which  embodies  a  complete  history  of  the  petition  up  to 
that  time,  is  here  largely  reproduced : 

' '  Home  protection  is  the  keyword  of  woman's  work.  Manu- 
facturers seek  the  tariff  for  the  purpose  of  protection  to  indus- 
tries, adult  and  infant;  trades  unions  are  founded  to  protect  the 
wage-earners  from  the  aggressions  of  capital,  and  corporations 
and  monopolies  to  protect  from  the  encroachment  of  competition; 
but  ten  thousand  groups  of  loyal-hearted  mothers  and  wives,  sis- 
ters and  daughters  have  been  formed  for  the  purpose  of  acting  in 
an  organized  capacity  as  protectors  of  their  homes,  as  guardians 
for  innocent  childhood  and  tempted  youth.  For  this  cause  '  there 
are  bands  of  ribbon  white  around  the  world,'  and  this  Polyglot 
Petition  is  but  our  prayer  that  '  tells  out '  a  purpose  of  our  hearts 
and  heads  wrought  into  a  plea  before  the  nations  of  the  world.  It 
is  the  protest  of  the  world's  wifehood  and  motherhood,  its  sister- 
hood and  daughterhood  —  a  protest  '  in  sorrow,  not  in  anger. ' 

' '  We  expect  to  present  this  petition  to  representatives  of 
every  civilized  government.  This  cannot  be  done  in  the  usual 
form,  because  when  once  received  this  Magna  Charta  of  the  home 
would  become  the  property  of  the  various  legislatures  and  parlia- 
ments, and  our  plan  requires  that  it  be  conveyed  from  one  to 
another.  We  are  also  aware  that  in  a  legal  and  technical  sense 
no  government  accepts  the  signatures  of  those  outside  its  own 
boundaries.  We  have  therefore  preferred  to  make  our  petition  a 
great  popular  testimonial  against  the  enemies  of  the  home,  but  we 
expect  that  its  presentation  will  give  an  added  impetus  to  pro- 
gressive legislation  against  the  liquor  traffic,  the  opium  trade,  the 
gambling  den,  and  the  house  of  shame.  For,  while  the  last  two 
are  not  specifically  named,  they  are  so  closely  interwoven  with  the 
traffic  in  alcohol  and  opium  that  the  spirit  of  the  petition  neces- 
sarily includes  them  all. 


I52  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

1 '  The  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  has  circulated 
many  petitions.  The  number  of  signatures  and  attestations  secured 
throughout  the  world  to  our  different  petitions  in  the  last  twenty 
years  aggregates  not  fewer  than  fifteen  million  of  names — probably 
twenty  millions  would  be  nearer  the  truth.  In  this  estimate  I 
include  the  memorials  and  petitions  for  Scientific  Temperance 
Education  in  the  public  schools  ;  also  for  laws  raising  the  age  of 
consent  and  otherwise  involving  the  better  protection  of  women, 
not  to  speak  of  the  anti-cigarette  crusade  and  numberless  local  peti- 
tions circulated  by  the  faithful  hands  of  White  Ribbon  women. 
We  are,  therefore,  veterans  in  our  knowledge  of  petition  work,  and 
for  this  reason  are  perfectly  aware  that  the  best  outcome  of  such 
undertakings  is  the  agitation  and  consequent  education  that  comes 
to  those  who  affix  their  signatures,  or  who  by  resolution  make  the 
prayer  of  the  petition  their  own.  For  example,  in  the  State  of 
Illinois,  in  1878,  we  circulated  a  'Home  Protection  Petition, '  asking 
that  '  since  woman  is  the  born  conservator  of  home,  and  the  nearest 
natural  protector  of  her  children,  she  should  have  a  voice  in  the 
decision  by  which  the  dramshop  is  opened  or  is  closed  over  against 
her  home. '  Two  hundred  thousand  names  were  secured  in  a  few 
weeks,  some  of  us  traveling  from  town  to  town  for  this  purpose, 
and  remaining  for  months  at  Springfield,  the  capital,  in  the  hope 
that  the  Legislature  would  adopt  the  '  Hinds  bill, '  based  upon  this 
righteous  plea. 

' '  I  need  not  say  that  we  were  wholly  unsuccessful  with  that 
Legislature.  Not  for  that  end  was  it  born  ;  not  for  that  cause  did 
it  sit  in  the  great  Statehouse  among  the  cornfields  of  the  Prairie 
State  and  near  the  tomb  of  the  immortal  Abraham  Lincoln.  On 
the  contrary,  it  was  a  Legislature  chosen  for  no  other  purpose  so 
explicitly  as  to  legislate  in  the  interest  of  the  Peoria  distillery,  the 
Chicago  brewery,  and  the  Illinois  saloons  in  which  the  '  middle  men ' 
of  those  great  monopolies  dealt  out  their  deadly  product.  But  the 
reflex  influence  of  the  petition  work  upon  the  home-folk  of  Illinois 
was  such  that  under  our  local  option  law,  in  six  hundred  out  of 
eight  hundred  towns,  the  popular  vote  that  year  was  registered 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C  T.  U.  153 

against  the  dramshop,  a  larger  percentage  of  temperance  votes, 
I  grieve  to  add,  than  my  State  had  ever  cast  before  or  has  cast 
since  up  to  this  day. 

' '  We  prize  the  Polyglot  Petition  work  because  it  has  afforded 
a  nucleus  around  which  women  may  rally.  It  has  furnished  imme- 
diate work  to  new  and  distant  societies  which  was  essential  to  their 
success.  The  petition  has  also  been  the  peg  upon  which  have 
been  hung  paragraphs  and  presentation  speeches,  sermons  and 
songs  in  every  part  of  Christendom  —  and  the  end  is  not  yet;  nay, 
the  beginning  is  hardly  here.  Because  we  are  patriots  we  have  come 
to  the  capital  of  our  native  land  to  present  this  petition,  first  of  all, 
in  the  country  in  which  it  originated,  and  which  has  sent  out  all  the 
White  Ribbon  missionaries  who  have  secured  its  circulation  in  for- 
eign countries.  The  greatest  number  of  names,  indorsements,  and 
attestations  has  been  secured  in  our  own  country,  and  next  to  ours 
in  Great  Britain.  Miss  Gwellian  Morgan,  of  Wales,  has  super- 
intended this  work  in  the  mother  country,  under  the  untiring  and 
efficient  leadership  of  the  President. 

' '  We  greatly  regret  that  none  of  our  Round-the- World  mis- 
sionaries could  be  present  on  this  occasion,  toward  which  they  and 
we  have  looked  forward  so  long,  and  which  their  faithful  work  has 
alone  made  possible 

' '  Time  would  fail  me  to  tell  of  the  earnest  women  who  have 
circulated  this  petition  in  every  nation.  We  could  not  have 
secured  signatures  in  Oriental  countries,  but  for  the  co-operation  of 
the  denominational  missionaries,  who  have  been  most  faithful  and 
devoted. 

' '  The  labor  of  sending  out  blank  petitions  for  signatures  was 
largely  carried  on  by  our  lamented  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Woodbridge,  of 
Chicago,  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  World's  and  National 
W.  C.  T.  U.  They  were  gathered  in  and  acknowledged  by  Miss 
Alice  E.  Briggs,  for  years  the  Office  Secretary  of  the  World's 
W.  C.  T.  U.,  at  the  Temple,  Chicago,  and  were  mounted  on 
white  muslin  by  Mrs.  Rebecca  C.  Shuman,  of  Evanston,  Illinois, 
the  seat  of  Northwestern  University.  The  dimensions  of  the  task 


I54  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

which  Mrs.  Shuman  undertook  may  be  imagined  from  the  fact  that 
the  aggregate  of  time  she  has  already  spent  amounts  to  about  two 
years  of  steady  work.  The  signatures  came  to  hand  in  fifty  lan- 
guages; they  were  of  all  sorts  and  sizes,  and  were  to  be  trimmed 
and  prepared  for  mounting  as  compactly  as  possible  on  intermin- 
able webs  of  muslin,  one-half  yard  in  width,  one  edge  of  which  is 
bound  with  red,  the  other  with  blue  ribbon  —  red,  white  and  blue 
being  the  prevalent  colors  of  the  flags  of  all  nations  and  the  sym- 
bolic badges  of  the  great  temperance  movement  of  modern  times. 

' '  The  names  are  necessarily  mounted  somewhat  irregularly, 
but  they  average  four  columns  abreast,  making,  in  reality,  a  quad- 
ruple petition,  with  about  one  hundred  names  to  the  yard  in  each 
column.  Mrs.  Shuman  has  now  mounted  1,928  yards,  or  over  one 
mile  of  canvas  —  making  five  miles  of  names  written  solidly,  one 
under  the  other — 771,200  in  all.  This  is  exclusive  of  about 
350,000  names  that  came  from  Great  Britain  already  mounted, 
making  the  total  of  i,  121,200  actual  names  on  the  document  that 
will  be  submitted  to  President  Cleveland.  Besides  these,  there  are 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  names  yet  waiting  to  be  added  to  the 
long  roll.  Nor  will  we  ever  rest  until  we  have  2,000,000  actual 
names,  besides  the  present  5,000,000  additional  signers  by  attesta- 
tion. 

' '  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  signatures  to  this  petition 
are  of  three  kinds.  First,  the  names  of  women;  second,  the  writ- 
ten indorsements  of  men;  third,  the  attestations  of  officers  of 
societies  which  have  indorsed  the  petition  by  resolution  or  other- 
wise. The  document  has  been  circulated  in  fifty  nations,  and  in 
the  three  ways  stated  has  received  over  7,000,000  signatures.  The 
total  number  of  actual  signers  from  outside  the  United  States  is 
480,000.  Great  Britain,  with  Lady  Henry  Somerset's  name  at  the 
head,  leads  the  procession  with  its  350,000.  Canada  comes  next 
with  67,000.  Burmah  with  32,000,  and  Ceylon,  Australia,  Den- 
mark, China,  India  and  Mexico  follow,  with  all  the  others  coming 
after. 

' '  Though  this  is  a  woman's  petition,  it  should  be  noted  that  it 


FOUNDER   OF   WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  155 

is  indorsed  by  perhaps  1,000,000  men  —  some  by  personal  signa- 
tures, but  the  greater  number  by  the  attestation  of  the  officers  of 
societies  to  which  they  belong.  Even  from  far-off  Ceylon,  which 
we  are  accustomed  to  think  of  as  a  small  island  of  dusky  savages, 
come  the  signatures  of  27,000  men  who  call  for  the  cessation  of  the 
liquor  and  opium  traffic.  The  following  are  the  countries  repre- 
sented by  this  Petition: 

United  States.  —  Forty-four  States,  five  Territories  and  Alaska. 

Canada. —  Nova  Scotia,  New  Brunswick,  Prince  Edward 
Island,  Quebec,  Ontario,  Manitoba,  British  Columbia. 

Newfoundland. 

Mexico. 

Jamaica. 

Bahamas. 

Madeira. 

South  America. —  Brazil,  Chile,  Uruguay. 

Europe. —  England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  Wales,  France,  Hol- 
land, Belgium,  Denmark,  Norway,  Sweden,  Spain,  Rus- 
sia, Finland,  Turkey,  Bulgaria. 

Asia. —  China,  Japan,  India,  Burmah,   Siam,  Corea,  Ceylon. 

Africa. —  Egypt,  Congo  Free  State,  Transvaal,  West  and 
South  Africa,  Angola. 

Madagascar. 

Mozambique. 

Australia. — Victoria,  South  Australia,  Queensland,  New  South 
Wales. 

Tasmania. 

New  Zealand. 

Micronesia. 

Hawaiian  Islands. 

"To  enumerate  the  languages  in  whose  characters  the  beliefs 
of  women  have  been  recorded  in  this  far-reaching  document,  would 
be  to  make  a  list  of  almost  every  tongue  that  has  survived  the 
confusion  of  Babel.  There  are  columns  of  Chinese  women's  signa- 
tures that  look  like  houses  that  Jack  built.  There  is  a  list  of  Bur- 


I56  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

mese  signatures  resembling  bunches  of  'tangled  worms.'  The 
thousands  upon  thousands  from  the  spicy  Isle  of  Ceylon  are 
enough  to  make  a  shorthand  man  shudder;  the  incomprehensible 
but  liquid  vowels  of  the  Hawaiian  Kanaka  jostle  the  proud  names 
of  English  ladies  of  high  degree;  the  Spanish  of  haughty  senoras 
of  Madrid  makes  the  same  plea  as  the  'her  mark'  of  the  con- 
verted woman  of  the  Congo.  There  are  Spanish  names  from 
Mexico  and  the  South  American  Republics,  French  from  Marti- 
nique, Dutch  from  Natal  and  English  from  New  Zealand,  besides 
the  great  home  petition  from  the  greater  nations.  The  total, 
counting  men's  and  women's  signatures,  indorsements  and  attesta- 
tions, aggregates  seven  and  one-half  millions. 

' '  In  making  this  petition,  we  claim  we  are  entirely  constitu- 
tional, inasmuch  as  the  right  to  sign  'has  not  been  denied  or 
abridged  on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of  servi- 
tude.' Perhaps  this  is  the  reason  why  we  have  secured  many 
names  of  reformed  men,  and  why  Catholic,  Protestant  and  pagan 
have  all  been  represented. 

' '  It  would  be  invidious  to  mention  the  names  of  signers,  but 
they  represent  every  grade  of  human  life,  and  the  great  procession 
is  headed  by  the  name  of  Neal  Dow,  the  father  of  prohibitory 
law,  who  signed  when  over  ninety  years  of  age,  and  who  is  hale 
and  hearty,  and  would  be  with  us  tonight  but  for  the  severity  of 
the  weather  in  his  own  piney  woods  of  Maine.  Scientists  teach 
that  every  signature  involves  some  touch  of  personality,  not  only 
in  the  appearance  of  the  autograph  itself,  but  by  the  impartation 
of  individual  particles  that  surround  everyone,  and  which  project 
themselves  into  every  deed  that  we  perform.  That  this  is  true  is 
more  than  likely,  so  that  when  we  consider  that  every  nation,  tribe 
and  people  of  the  earth,  almost,  is  represented;  when  we  reflect 
that  these  infinitely  varied  autographs  representing  persons  born 
and  bred  under  equally  varying  conditions  have  found  in  this  peti- 
tion against  the  greatest  curses  of  the  world  their  focusing  point, 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  by  God's  good  providence  we  have 
in  the  Polyglot  Petition  the  promise  and  potency  of  the  better 


FOUNDER    OF    WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  157 

time  when  by  the  personal  interdict  of  a  higher  intelligence  and 
the  conclusive  law  of  social  custom  the  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks 
and  opium  shall  be  banned  and  banished  from  the  world.  In  that 
day  the  laws  for  which  the  great  petition  asks  and  which  we  believe 
must  be  enacted  as  the  most  cogent  means  of  education  for  the 
people,  will  no  longer  be  required,  but  every  human  being  will 
enact  in  the  legislature  of  his  own  intellect  a  prohibitory  law  for 
one  and  enforce  that  law  by  the  executive  of  his  own  will. 

' '  '  It  will  come  by  and  by,  when  the  race  out  of  childhood 
has  grown.' 

. ' '  It  is  more  than  ten  years  since  the  petition  was  written ;  if 
I  had  to  rewrite  it  I  should  assuredly  include  the  enfranchisement 
of  women  among  the  requisites  it  specifies,  for  I  believe  that  our 
Heavenly  Father  will  not  suffer  men  alone  to  work  out  the  great 
redemption  of  the  race  from  the  bewilderment  of  drink,  the  hallu- 
cination of  opium  and  the  brutal  delirium  of  impurity.  Hand  in 
hand  we  have  traversed  the  Sahara  of  ignorance  and  escaped  from 
the  City  of  Destruction;  hand  in  hand  let  us  mount  the  heights 
of  knowledge,  purity  and  peace." 

The  personal  presentation  of  the  petition  to  President  Cleve- 
land at  the  White  House  was  made  on  the  afternoon  of  February 
19,  the  General  Officers  of  the  World's  and  National  W.  C.  T.  U. 
with  the  President  of  the  White  Ribboners  of  the  District  of 
Columbia  being  granted  an  interview  at  the  Executive  Mansion. 
Miss  Willard  spoke  as  follows: 

"Mr.  President:  The  Polyglot  Petition,  addressed  to  the 
governments  of  the  world,  and  calling  for  the  prohibition  of  the 
traffic  in  alcoholic  liquors  as  a  drink,  the  prohibition  of  the 
opium  traffic  and  all  forms  of  legalized  social  vice,  has  been  signed 
by  half  a  million  citizens  of  this  Republic;  by  means  of  signa- 
tures, indorsements  and  attestations  it  includes  seven  and  a  half 
million  adherents  in  fifty  different  nationalities.  This  petition  has 
been  circulated  by  the  World's  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union,  and  will  be  presented  to  all  the  leading  governments. 
Inasmuch  as  the  petition  originated  and  has  been  most  largely 


i58  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

signed  in  the  United  States,  it  is  hereby  respectfully  brought  to 
your  attention,  not  on  any  legal  ground,  but  because  it  is  addressed 
to  the  governments  of  the  world,  and  you  are  the  executive  chief 
of  this  Government." 

After  placing  a  copy  of  the  petition  in  the  President's  hands, 
the  Recording  Secretary  of  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U.  read  the 
document  with  remarkable  impressiveness,  and  Miss  Willard 
resumed: 

"Mr.  President:  We  are  aware  that  the  petition  just  read  in 
your  hearing  cannot  come  before  you  as  a  legal  document,  but 
rather  as  an  expression  of  the  opinion  and  sentiment  of  a  great 
multitude  of  your  countrywomen  who  believe  that  if  its  prayer 
were  granted  the  better  protection  of  the  home  would  be  secured. 
Knowing  how  difficult  it  was  for  you  to  grant  us  this  hearing  at  a 
time  when  you  are  even  more  than  usually  weighted  with  great 
responsibilities,  we  have  foreborne  to  bring  the  Great  Petition  to 
the  White  House.  Permit  me  to  hand  you  this  attested  copy  and 
to  thank  you  on  behalf  of  this  delegation,  representing  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  in  this  and  other  lands,  for  the  kind 
reception  you  have  given  to  our  delegation." 

In  the  following  spring  the  petition  was  taken  to  London  and 
was  the  central  feature  of  the  Third  Biennial  Convention  of  the 
World's  W.  C.  T.  U.  In  Prince  Albert  Hall,  where  the  monster 
demonstration  meeting  was  held,  its  countless  folds  encircled  gal- 
leries and  platform  like  a  huge  white  ribbon  into  which  had  been 
woven  the  symbolic  badges  of  the  great  host  of  women  who  in 
every  land  are  publishing  the  tidings  of  purity  and  total  abstinence. 
Lady  Henry  Somerset  presented  to  Her  Majesty,  Queen  Victoria, 
two  richly  bound  and  illuminated  volumes  containing  the  text  of 
the  petition  with  the  signatures  of  such  of  her  royal  subjects  as 
were  among  its  signers. 

In  1897  tne  great  rolls  crossed  the  ocean  again  to  adorn  Mas- 
sey  Music  Hall,  Toronto,  on  the  occasion  of  the  Fourth  World's 
W.  C.  T.  U.  Convention.  It  was  Miss  Willard's  earnest  desire  to 
assist  in  presenting  the  petition  to  the  Canadian  Government,  and 


FOUNDER   OF   WORLD'S    W.  C  T.  U.  159 

one  of  her  last  dictated  messages  during  her  illness  in  New  York 
City  concerned  its  future  destiny.  She  has  left  it  as  a  precious 
legacy  to  her  White  Ribbon  sisters  as  well  as  an  object  lesson  to 
the  world  of  the  marvelous  dimensions  to  which  an  idea  may 
attain.  The  Convention  at  Toronto  was  our  leader's  last  active 
work  for  the  World's  Union.  Her  faith  in  the  ultimate  outcome 
of  twenty-four  years  of  heroic  struggle  shone  with  undimmed  luster, 
and  never  was  it  more  clearly  apparent  that  she  held  in  her  little 
hand  both  ends  of  the  white  ribbon  that  belts  the  globe. 

Following  Miss  Willard's  ' '  Summing  up  of  the  whole  matter  " 
concerning  the  ' '  Organized  Mother-Love  "  of  the  World's  W.  C. 
T.  U. ,  we  publish  her  last  message  to  her  White  Ribbon  sisters  the 
world  around  —  the  address  which,  as  President  of  the  Society, 
she  delivered  before  the  Fourth  Biennial  Convention  in  Toronto 
on  the  morning  of  October  23,  1897. 

"THE  SUMMING-UP   OF  THE  WHOLE   MATTER." 

Humanly  speaking,  such  a  success  as  the  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  Union  has  attained  has  resulted  from  the  following 
policy  and  methods: 

1.  The  simplicity  and  unity  of  the  organization.     The  local 
union  is  a  miniature  of  the  national,  having  similar  officiary  and 
plan   of    work.       It   is   a   military   company   carefully   mustered, 
officered,  and  drilled.      The  county  union  is  but  an  aggregation 
of  the  local,  and  the  districts  of  the  counties,  while  each  State  is  a 
regiment,  and  the  national  itself  is  womanhood's  Grand  Army  of 
the  Home. 

2.  Individual   responsibility   is   everywhere   urged.       "Com- 
mittees" are  obsolete  with  us,  and  each  distinct  line  of  work  has 
one  person,  called  a  superintendent,  who  is  responsible  for  its  suc- 
cess.    She  may  secure  such  lieutenants  as  she  likes,  but  the  Union 
looks  to  her  for  results,  and  holds  her  accountable  for  failures. 

3.  The   quick   and   cordial   recognition  of  talent  is   another 
secret  of  W.  C.  T.  U.  success.     Women,  young  or  old,  who  can 
speak,  write,  conduct  meetings,  organize,  keep  accounts,  interest 


1 60  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

children,  talk  with  the  drinking  man,  get  up  entertainments,  or 
carry  flowers  to  the  sick  or  imprisoned,  are  all  pressed  into  the 
service. 

There  has  been  also  in  our  work  an  immense  amount  of  dig- 
ging in  the  earth  to  find  one's  own  buried  talent,  to  rub  off  the 

o       O 

rust,  and  to  put  it  out  at  interest.  Perhaps  this  is,  after  all,  its 
most  significant  feature,  considered  as  a  movement. 

4.  Subordination  of  the  financial  phase  has  helped,  not  hin- 
dered us.  Lack  of  funds  has  not  barred  out  even  the  poorest  from 
our  sisterhood.  A  penny  per  week  is  the  general  basis  of  member- 
ship, of  which  a  fraction  goes  to  state,  national  and  world's  unions. 

Money  has  been,  and  I  hope  may  be,  a  consideration  altogether 
secondary.  Of  wealth  we  have  had  incomputable  stores;  indeed, 
I  question  if  there  exists  a  richer  corporation  today  than  ours  — 
wealth  of  faith,  of  enthusiasm,  of  experience,  of  brain,  of  speech,  of 
common  sense.  This  is  a  capital  stock  that  can  never  depreciate, 
needs  no  insurance,  requires  no  combination  lock  or  bonded  cus- 
todian, and  puts  us  under  no  temptation  to  tack  our  course  or  trim 
our  sails. 

There  are  two  indirect  results  of  this  organized  work  among 
women,  concerning  which  I  wish  to  speak: 

First:  It  is  a  very  strong  nationalizing  influence.  Its  method 
and  spirit  differ  very  little,  whether  you  study  them  in  Boston  or 
Bombay.  In  South  Africa  and  South  Carolina  White  Ribbon 
women  speak  the  same  vernacular;  tell  of  their  Gospel  meetings 
and  petitions;  discuss  the  Union  Signal  editorials,  and  wonder 
"what  will  be  the  action  of  our  next  Convention." 

Almost  all  of  the  other  groups  of  women  workers  who  dot  the 
continent  are  circumscribed  by  denominational  lines,  and  act 
largely  under  the  advice  of  ecclesiastical  leaders.  The  W.  C. 
T.  U.  feels  no  such  limitation. 

Second  :  Our  W.  C.  T.  U.  is  a  school,  not  founded  in  that 
thought,  or  for  that  purpose,  but  sure  to  fit  us  for  the  duties  of 
patriots  in  the  realm  that  lies  beyond  the  horizon  of  the  coming 
century. 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  161 

Here  we  try  our  wings  that  yonder  our  flight  may  be  strong 
and  steady.  Here  we  prove  our  capacity  for  great  deeds;  there 
we  shall  perform  them.  Here  we  make  our  experience  and  pass 
our  novitiate,  that  yonder  we  may  calmly  take  our  places  and  prove 
to  the  world  that  what  it  needed  most  was  ' '  two  heads  in  counsel  " 
as  well  as  "two  beside  the  hearth."  When  that  has  come  the 
nation  shall  no  longer  miss  as  now  the  influence  of  half  its  wisdom, 
more  than  half  its  purity,  and  nearly  all  its  gentleness,  in  courts  of 
justice  and  halls  of  legislation.  Then  shall  one  code  of  morals  — 
and  that  the  highest  —  govern  both  men  and  women;  then  shall 
the  Sabbath  be  respected,  the  rights  of  the  poor  be  recognized,  the 
liquor  traffic  banished,  and  the  home  protected  from  all  its  foes. 

Born  of  such  a  visitation  of  God's  Spirit  as  the  world  has  not 
known  since  tongues  of  fire  sat  upon  the  wondering  group  at  Pente- 
cost, cradled  in  a  faith  high  as  the  heart  of  a  saint,  and  deep  as 
the  depths  of  a  drunkard's  despair,  and  baptized  in  the  beauty  of 
holiness,  the  Crusade  determined  the  ultimate  goal  of  its  teachable 
child,  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  which  has  one 
steadfast  aim,  and  that  none  other  than  the  regnancy  of  Christ, 
not  in  form,  but  in  fact;  not  in  substance,  but  in  essence;  not 
ecclesiastically,  but  truly  in  the  hearts  of  men.  To  this  end  its 
methods  are  varied,  changing,  manifold,  but  its  unwavering  faith 
these  words  express :  ' '  Not  by  might,  nor  by  power,  but  by  My 
Spirit,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts." 

When  I  consider  the  work  already  accomplished  by  the 
World's  White  Ribboners,  the  sacred  meaning  of  our  society  is  a 
thought  well-nigh  overwhelming.  Your  kind  hands  that  I  feign 
would  clasp,  have  been  placed  on  the  heads  of  little  children  of 
whom  we  have  half  a  million  in  our  Loyal  Temperance  Legions; 
they  have  given  out  total  abstinence  pledges  to  a  million  tempted 
men ;  they  have  pinned  the  ribbon  white,  as  the  talisman  of  purity, 
above  the  hearts  of  ten  thousand  tempted  prodigals;  they  have 
carried  bread  to  the  hungry,  and  broken  the  bread  of  life  to  those 
who  were  most  hungry  of  all  for  that,  although  they  knew  it  not. 
These  hands  have  carried  petitions  for  the  protection  of  the  home, 

11 


162  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

for  the  preservation  of  the  Sabbath,  for  the  purification  of  the  law, 
and  during  twenty-one  years  of  such  honest,  hard  work,  as  was 
rarely,  if  ever,  equaled,  they  have  gathered  not  fewer  than  twenty 
million  names  to  these  petitions.  Your  friendly  faces  have  bent 
over  the  bedsides  of  the  dying,  for  whose  souls  no  one  seemed  to 
care;  they  have  illumined  with  the  light  that  never  shone  on  sea 
or  shore  many  a  dark  tenement  house  in  attic  and  cellar;  they 
have  gleamed  like  stars  of  hope  in  the  darkest  slums  of  our  great 
cities.  Your  voices  have  sung  songs  of  deliverance  to  the  prisoners 
in  ten  thousand  jails  and  almshouses;  they  have  brought  a  breath 
of  cheer  into  police  courts,  bridewells  and  houses  of  detention  all 
around  the  world. 

Your  willing  feet  are  more  familiar  with  rough  than  with 
smooth  pavements.  You  know  the  byways  better  than  the  high- 
ways. If  all  your  errands  could  be  set  in  order  they  would  read 
like  the  litany  of  God's  deliverance  to  those  bound  in  the  chains  of 
temptation,  sorrow  and  sin.  Some  touch  of  all  that  you  have  seen 
and  done  chastens  each  forehead  and  hallows  every  face.  God 
has  helped  you  to  build  better  than  you  knew.  If  White  Ribbon 
women  had  their  way  —  and  they  intend  to  have  it  —  the  taint  of 
alcohol  and  nicotine  would  not  be  on  any  lip,  or  in  any  atmosphere 
of  city,  town  or  village  on  this  globe.  If  they  had  their  way  — 
and  they  intend  to  have  it  —  no  gambler  could  with  impunity  pur- 
sue his  vile  vocation.  If  they  had  their  way,  the  haunts  of  shame 
that  are  the  zero  mark  of  degradation  would  be  crusaded  out  of 
existence  before  sundown,  and  the  industrial  status  of  women 
would  be  so  independent  that  the  recruiting  officers  of  perdition 
would  seek  in  vain  for  victims.  If  you  could  have  your  way,  the 
keeper  of  the  dramshop  would  become  in  every  state  and  nation, 
as,  thank  God,  he  is  already  in  so  many,  a  legal  outcast,  a  political 
Ishmaelite,  a  social  pariah  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  for  you  do  not 
seek  the  regulation  of  the  traffic,  nor  its  prohibition,  even,  but  its 
annihilation. 

Among  the  reflex  influences  by  which  this  temperance  work 
has  broadened  my  own  outlook  and  enriched  my  hopes,  I  must 


FOUNDER    OF    WORLD'S    W.  C.   T,   U.  163 

speak  of  the  sweet  and  tender  lessons  of  White  Ribbon  homes 
that  have  sheltered  me.  I  have  learned  how  such  solemn  vicissi- 
tudes as  come  into  the  lives  of  women  only,  help  to  confirm  your 
faith  in  the  world  invisible.  The  breath  of  eternity  falls  on  your 
foreheads  like  baptismal  dew  in  those  hours  of  unutterable  pain 
and  danger  when  a  little  child  is  born  into  your  home.  Your  steps 
lie  along  the  border-land  of  this  closely  curtained  world. 

' '  And  palpitates  the  veil  between 
With  breathings  almost  heard." 

Into  your  eyes  fall  the  first  mystic  glances  of  innocent  and  trusting 
souls.  Tender  little  hands  folded  in  prayer,  and  winsome  voices 
saying, 

' '  Gentle  Jesus,   meek  and  mild, 
Look  upon  a  little  child," 

have  done  more  than  all  traditional  restraints  to  keep  your  hearts 
loving  and  unworldly.  Always  this  will  be  so;  always  from  man- 
hood's more  exterior  view  of  life's  significance  you  are  separated  by 
the  deepest  and  most  sacred  experiences  which  human  hearts  may 
know.  That  anchor  holds.  But  God  has  given  the  mother-heart 
for  purposes  of  wider  blessing  to  humanity  than  it  has  dreamed  as 
yet.  Let  us  go  gently  forward  until  that  loving,  faithful  heart  shall 
be  enthroned  in  the  places  of  power;  until  the  queens  of  home  are 
queens  indeed. 

And,  best  of  all,  the  hand  of  Him  whose  Gospel  has  lifted  us 
up  into  the  heavenly  places  in  Christ  Jesus,  of  Him  who  was  a 
brother  to  the  Marys,  and  who,  in  His  hour  of  mortal  agony,  did 
not  forget  His  mother  —  that  pierced  hand  points  the  way. 

GREETING. 

Beloved  Comrades  from  Many  Lands  : 

Nothing  more  pleasant  can  be  said  by  old  friends  as  they  recount  cherished 
scenes  of  long  ago  than  the  warm-hearted  phrase  of  explanation,  "We  were 
brought  up  together."  Thinking  of  you  more  often  than  you  know,  seeing  your 
illumined  faces  in  the  golden  glow  of  fancy,  feeling  the  clasp  of  your  warm  hands, 


164  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

and  inspired  by  the  good  cheer  of  your  genuine  tones,  I  have  said  to  myself 
again  and  again,  in  anticipation  of  this  happy  scene,  ' '  We  were  brought  up 
together. ' ' 

I  knew  that  you  were  gathering  from  near  and  from  far;  that  every  continent 
would  be  represented  in  this  meeting  of  which  we  have  all  thought  so  long  ;  that 
Iceland  and  New  Zealand  would  meet  in  this  bright  auditorium,  made  fair  with 
flags  from  many  lands.  I  knew  that  Oregon  and  Armenia  —  brave  Oregon, 
sacred  Armenia  —  would  here  sit  side  by  side.  I  knew  that  the  mighty  Empire 
whose  center  is  London,  "  heart  of  the  world,"  would  be  nobly  represented,  and 
the  blessed  Republic,  dear  to  me  as  the  beating  of  this  glad  heart,  would  send  its 
big  contingent ;  that  a  few  prophetic  ones  from  the  great  wine  and  beer  drinking 
continent  of  Europe  would  lefcrn  a  new  optimism  from  the  cheery  Australasian 
delegates  ;  and  that  here  in  the  Dominion  that  has  prepared  for  us  with  so  much 
beautiful  forethought,  we  should  meet  this  day  and  feel  in  our  inmost  hearts  that 
"We  were  brought  up  together. "  For  there  is  one  book  that  lies,  well-worn, 
upon  the  table  at  home,  one  that  you  have  carried  with  you,  no  matter  what  you 
may  have  left  behind  —  one  at  sight  of  which,  upon  your  father's  knee,  you  were 
wont  to  gather  in  that  most  hallowed  circle  that  the  world  can  show,  the  group  at 
family  prayer  ;  and  I  know  you  kept,  as  I  do,  in  some  sacred  place,  untouched 
save  by  reverent  and  loving  hands,  the  little  Testament  whose  worn  pages  were 
once  turned  by  fevered  fingers  that  are  dust ;  and  so,  though  you  lived  in  land  of 
palm  and  I  in  land  of  pine,  though  Christmas  came  in  midsummer  where  you 
dwelt  or  the  sun  for  three  months  shone  not  on  your  habitation  ;  though  the 
equator  divided  us  until  now  and  the  salt  sea's  brine  had  risen  up  to  keep  us 
severed  —  still,  by  all  that  is  most  holy  and  endearing,  ' '  We  were  brought  up 
together. ' ' 

If  I  should  start  the  hymn,  "Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul,"  you  who  learned  it 
in  Japan  would  sing  it  with  me  who  heard  it  first  on  a  Wisconsin  prairie  in  the 
hallowed  precincts  of  a  pioneer's  home.  If  some  of  you  should  give  us  the 
keynote  to  ' '  There  are  bands  of  ribbon  white  around  the  world, ' '  there  is  no 
voice  among  us  but  would  join  that  song  of  hope.  We  have  all  been  trained 
alike  to  love  the  wonder  of  the  world,  the  splendor  of  the  midnight  heavens,  the 
glory  of  the  newborn  day  ;  brought  up  together  in  the  ultimate  and  great 
endeavor  to  say  with  fond  hearts  fervently,  "  O  universe,  what  thou  desirest  I 
desire. ' ' 

This  globe  was  a  great  unknown  area  once  ;  the  seas  separated  us  then,  they 
join  us  now.  We  can  send  messages  by  telegraph,  and  have  an  answer  from 
almost  any  point  on  the  round  earth  in  a  few  hours.  When  the  Siberian  and 
Alaskan  railways  are  finished,  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  century,  only  three 
years  from  hence,  one  can  go  around  the  world  in  a  little  more  than  thirty  days. 
But  we  do  not  need  to  wait  for  that,  we  are  never  far  apart  ;  the  thoughts  of  our 


FOUNDER   OF   WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  165 

hearts  are  always  the  same,  and  mutual  thought  gives  mutual  presence.  If  some 
one  stood  up  here  and  spoke  to  you  in  Hebrew,  only  those  who  knew  that  sacred 
tongue  would  make  reply.  Our  crusade  mothers  brought  to  the  world  the  home 
protection  tongue,  and  it  has  spread  so  fast  and  far  that  we  who  learned  and  loved 
it,  we  who  believe  that  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  in  the  home,  and  that  nothing 
that  hurts  or  destroys  should  be  permitted  entrance  to  that  holy  place  ;  we  who 
believe  that  love  and  law  must  go  together,  man  and  woman  work  side  by  side  in 
the  world's  larger  home  that  we  will  help  to  make  ;  wherever  we  may  have  lived, 
wherever  we  may  have  learned  this  tongue  or  cherished  this  love,  we  women  of 
the  white  ribbon,  the  home's  fireside,  the  nation's  safety,  the  world's  brotherhood 
and  sisterhood,  we  were  ' '  brought  up  together  ' ' ! 

It  is  related  by  an  eye-witness  that  in  one  of  the  New  England  regiments  of 
the  Civil  War,  every  member  was  a  professed  Christian,  and  that  this  even 
included  the  brass  band.  They  had  regimental  prayer  meetings  led  by  this 
inspiring  orchestra.  But  theirs  was  one  of  the  first  regiments  to  feel  the  fire  of 
the  enemy,  and  the  men  retreated  into  the  forest,  whereupon  the  Colonel  called 
on  the  band  to  play  one  of  their  favorite  hymns,  beloved  in  boyhood  days  at 
home,  ' '  My  faith  looks  up  to  Thee. ' '  At  this  they  rallied  and  fought  again,  but 
a  second  time  they  were  overcome  by  superior  forces,  and  in.  the  midst  of  the 
forest,  with  shot  and  shell  hissing  around  them,  those  devoted  men  heard  the 
notes  of  that  inspiring  hymn  — 

"  A  charge  to  keep  I  have, 
A  God  to  glorify." 

At  this  the  regiment  rallied  once  more,  and  proved  itself  to  be  one  of  the  bravest 
in  the  undying  records  of  the  battle  of  Seven  Pines. 

These  men  had  been  recruited  from  many  different  towns  and  cities,  but  in 
the  deep  things  of  the  heart  they  proved  in  those  hours  of  unequaled  bewilder- 
ment and  danger,  that  their  hearts  had  been  attuned  to  the  same  inspirations  at 
the  sacred  altar  of  their  homes.  And  so  it  is  with  us,  by  joy  and  grief,  by  faith- 
ful fireside  teaching,  by  mother's  love  and  father's  loyalty,  by  sister's  tenderness 
and  brother's  generous  good  will,  by  hearts  touched  into  flame  for  the  cause  of 
temperance,  purity,  and  peace,  we  were  ' '  brought  up  together. ' '  Thank  God  for 
the  holy  ties  that  bind  our  hearts  in  Christian  love. 

TORONTO. 

We  meet  in  the  most  reputable  city  of  the  English-speaking  race  ;  no  saloon- 
keeper can  be  a  member  of  the  City  Council;  the  police  force  is  declared  to  be 
largely  composed  of.  temperance  men.  Listen  to  that,  ye  dwellers  in  San  Fran- 
cisco and  St.  Louis,  Chicago  and  Ne\v  York!  The  result  of  this  is,  that  public 
drunkenness  and  idle  loafing  are  practically  unknown.  Although  the  city,  with  a 


1 66  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

population  of  200,000,  has  as  many  saloons  as  it  has  churches,  and  that  is  well- 
nigh  200,  they  are  carefully  watched,  are  obliged  to  close  every  night  at  u 
o'  clock,  and  all  day  Sunday,  also  on  that  Sunday  of  the  patriot,  Election  Day. 
Intoxicating  liquors  are  banished  from  all  the  public  functions  of  the  City  Council 
in  entertaining  guests  at  exhibitions,  etc.  It  is  the  law  of  the  Province  of 
Ontario,  that  no  liquor  seller  is  eligible  for  election  to  a  municipal  council.  Sell- 
ing to  youths  under  twenty-one  years  of  age  is  illegal.  The  city  has  no  Sunday 
papers,  and  until  recently  not  a  street  car  moved  a  wheel  on  Sabbath  Day. 
When  the  plebiscite  was  taken,  which  resulted  in  81,469  majority  for  Prohibition 
in  the  Province  of  Ontario,  Toronto's  majority  was  2,463.  I  hardly  need  point 
out  the  large  proportion  of  women's  votes  that  were  sound  on  the  question  — 
6  to  i.  In  the  Dominion  the  total  vote  was  132,918,  counting  all  the  provinces 
except  New  Brunswick,  whose  legislature  has,  however,  voted  unanimously  for 
Prohibition. 

All  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age  are  obliged  to  attend  school,  and 
the  law  is  efficiently  carried  out  by  a  faithful  truant  officer.  The  number  of  these 
children  is  28,000,  and  the  students  at  universities  and  colleges,  6,000.  Scientific 
temperance  instruction  is  a  department  of  White  Ribbon  work  in  Toronto  as 
well  as  throughout  the  Dominion,  and  I  have  the  word  of  one  of  the  best 
teachers  in  the  city  that  the  subject  is  most  carefully  and  enthusiastically  taught 
by  a  majority  of  the  public  school  instructors,  many  of  whom  are  members  with 
us,  and  have  helped  in  the  arrangements  for  this  convention.  We  are  to  have  a 
chorus  of  a  thousand  public  school  children,  who  will  favor  us  with  patriotic  and 
temperance  music  on  one  of  the  evenings  of  this  convention,  on  which  occasion 
the  Toronto  Public  School  Board  will  give  their  patronage. 

We  are  in  a  city  beautiful  for  situation  and  magnificent  in  architecture,  its 
educational  institutions  being  models  both  without  and  within.  It  is  so  near  to 
Niagara,  which  every  American  thinks  he  owns,  and  every  Canadian  knows  he 
does,  that  the  sound  of  its  eternal  hymn  can  almost  be  heard  from  where  we  are 
gathered  today.  Doubtless  it  will  not  be  long  until  the  lighting,  heating  and 
locomotion  of  Toronto  will  be  obtained  by  harnessing  that  mighty  force  so  long 
allowed  to  go  to  waste.  And  this  reminds  me  that  the  cataract  of  women's 
sympathy  and  tears  is  already  turning  the  mill  of  public  life  to  some  extent  on 
this  side  of  the  water,  where  a  limited  franchise  for  women  has  been  granted. 
God  hasten  the  time  when  we  can  say  as  much  for  every  State  in  the  Republic, 
and  every  nation  represented  here  today. 

THE    CANADIAN    PLEBISCITE. 

Canada  leads  the  world  today  in  the  great  Prohibition  struggle,  and  it  leads 
with  cheering  prospects  of  success.  The  country  is  homogeneous,  it  has  not 
that  great  foreign  population  to  contend  with  by  which  we,  of  the  States,  are 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  167 

almost  fatally  handicapped ;  its  people  are  serious-minded  and  practical ;  its  aver- 
age standard  of  morals  and  religion  is  higher  than  ours;  as  I  have  said,  it  has 
put  itself  on  record  by  a  popular  plebiscite  in  which  prohibition  triumphed;  it 
has  survived  the  horrors  of  the  Royal  Commission  to  investigate  the  liquor 
traffic,  and  is  on  the  eve  of  another  popular  vote  in  which,  although  it  must  con- 
tend against  the  united  power  of  the  alcohol  trade  in  all  countries  which  will  be 
brought  to  bear  upon  its  politicians  and  its  people,  we  have  faith  to  believe  (and 
we  go  largely  by  sight  as  well,  because  this  thing  has  been  done  once)  that 
' '  Our  Lady  of  the  Snows ' '  is  going  to  pluck  from  the  heaven  of  purity  and 
plant  on  her  own  fair  brow  the  bright  star  of  Prohibition,  which  means  happy 
homes  to  her  people  and  a  harbinger  of  peace  to  all  the  world. 

We  all  rejoice  that  the  great  Polyglot  Petition,  presented  already  in  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain,  has  been  sent  over  by  Lady  Henry  Somerset 
and  is  here  today  —  the  grandest  object  lesson  of  the  Cause.  We  rejoice,  too, 
that  it  is  going  to  Ottawa  to  be  presented  to  your  government  in  the  interest 
of  the  home  plebiscite  (as  I  like  to  call  it),  which  is  to  be  the  most  important 
ever  taken  in  the  country  of  the  Maple  Leaf. 

THE    DIAMOND    JUBILEE. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  the  greatest  landmark  that  will  remain  of  the  Vic- 
torian age  is  the  mighty  reform  in  law.  Women  have  profited  most  by  this 
redemption.  When  Victoria  came  to  the  throne,  marriage  transferred  from  wife 
to  husband  her  property,  her  earnings,  and  the  control  and  transferring  of  any 
children  that  might  result  from  the  alliance;  but  now  a  woman  is  the  independent 
proprietor,  after  marriage,  of  whatever  was  her  own  before,  including  what  is 
most  sacred  of  all,  the  independent  custody  of  her  own  person,  and  there  is  no 
corner  of  the  British  Empire,  so  far  as  it  is  under  British  law,  where  a  father  can 
will  away  his  unborn  child,  as  he  still  has  power  to  do  in  the  grand  old  common- 
wealth of  Massachusetts. 

We  cannot  doubt  that  the  long  and  prosperous  reign  of  a  woman  sovereign 
has  done  more  to  open  a  larger  life  to  all  English-speaking  women  than  any 
other  single  cause,  but  back  of  it  all  is  Christianity,  which  made  it  possible  for 
Victoria  to  be  a  queen  by  permission  of  Anglo-Saxon  men,  and  rendered  her  a 
ruler  who  has  compelled  the  respect  of  the  world. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  new  territory  acquired  during  the  present 
reign  extends  over  eleven  millions  of  square  miles,  covers  twenty-one  per  cent  of 
the  land  of  the  globe,  and  supports  a  population  of  above  four  millions  of  people. 
When  the  Queen  assumed  her  title,  the  United  Kingdom  contained  twenty-six 
millions  of  people,  now  it  has  practically  forty  millions;  the  United  States  had 
but  seventeen  millions,  now  it  has  seventy.  Australia's  population  was  then 


1 68  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

about  350,000,  now  it  has  over  3,300,000,  and  its  trade  exceeds  that  of  Great 
Britain  when  the  Queen  came  to  the  throne.  One-third  of  Africa,  which  was 
then  a  terra  incognita,  has  been  brought  under  English  civilization ;  railroads  and 
telegraph  lines  are  intersecting  all  the  rich  parts  of  the  continent,  and  within  two 
generations  it  will  be  as  thoroughly  settled  by  the  white  race  as  Australia  is  now. 

Slavery  was  everywhere  recognized  sixty  years  ago;  now  it  is  practically 
unknown.  Thirteen  crimes  were  punishable  with  death  when  the  Queen  began 
to  reign;  now  there  are  but  two  —  high  treason  and  willful  murder,  while  the 
death  penalty  has  been  abolished  in  several  American  and  European  States. 

Doubtless  the  most  significant  fact  of  the  Queen's  reign  (though  I  have  not 
seen  it  anywhere  included  in  the  list)  is  the  invention  of  Professor  Langley,  of 
the  Smithsonian  Institute,  Washington,  of  a  flying  machine  that  has  already 
made  repeated  journeys  of  from  a  quarter  to  half  a  mile  in  a  horizontal  line. 
Dirigible  balloons,  which  we  have  reason  to  believe  will  be  as  much  domesticated 
twenty-five  years  hence  as  bicycles  are  now,  will  put  a  premium  upon  a  perfectly 
poised  brain  and  steady  nerves  such  as  the  world  has  never  seen,  and  will  some 
day  be  the  death  of  ' '  brewing  interests, ' '  to  say  nothing  of  ' '  the  product  of 
distilleries  in  bond. ' ' 

No  colleges  were  open  to  women  when  Victoria  was  crowned  ;  now  all  but 
about  fifty  in  English-speaking  countries  are  at  their  service. 

Then  there  were  not  more  than  a  hundred  total  abstainers  among  the  minis- 
ters of  all  denominations  in  the  United  Kingdom,  not  one  bishop  and  less  than  a 
dozen  members  of  the  medical  profession  ;  there  are  now  two  archbishops,  four- 
teen bishops  of  English  dioceses,  thousands  of  clergymen  of  every  denomination, 
and  eighteen  hundred  physicians  who  are  teetotalers,  while  one  man  in  every 
three  in  the  army  is  an  abstainer. 

Then  public  houses  were  allowed  to  remain  open  twenty-four  hours  in  the 
day  ;  now  they  are  open  sixteen  in  the  rural  districts  and  seventeen  in  the  towns. 
Sunday-closing  for  Scotland,  Ireland  (with  the  exception  of  five  cities)  and  in 
Wales  has  been  obtained,  and  it  is  the  general  opinion  that  it  has  proved  an 
unqualified  success. 

At  the  great  dinner  to  the  poor  in  London  little  or  no  intoxicating  liquor  was 
given  out,  and  the  offer  of  liquor  merchants  to  furnish  their  product  free  was 
declined.  The  Lord  Mayor  of  London  was  offered  wine  by  wine  merchants  for 
the  dinner,  but  he  answered,  ' '  On  one  point  we  must  be  absolutely  unanimous, 
and  that  is  we  should  give  no  money  to  the  outcasts  and  no  drink. ' '  He  knew 
that  if  they  had  money  it  would  probably  be  promptly  exchanged  for  alcoholics. 

The  processions  at  the  Jubilee  of  Queen  Victoria,  and  the  inauguration  of  our 
President,  were  almost  wholly  military  ;  there  was  no  exhibition  of  trades  or 
inventions,  but  only  one  long  parade  of  uniformed  men.  Surely  we  have  reached 
an  age  which  has  for  its  true  emblems  the  arts  of  peace  rather  than  those  of  war. 


FOUNDER   OF   WORLD'S   W,  C  T.  U.  169 

I  cannot  think  that  in  the  great  jubilees  of  the  future,  soldiers  and  weapons  of 
war  will  be  the  chief  features  of  the  pageantry,  but  that  those  wonderful  inven- 
tions whereby  man  is  making  a  home  for  himself  through  an  understanding  of  the 
beneficent  possibilities  of  nature  and  the  beautiful  insignia  of  philanthropy,  poetry 
and  art,  whereby  that  home  is  elevated  and  embellished,  will  be  at  the  front  of 
every  procession  that  seeks  to  symbolize  the  civilization  of  the  New  Testament. 

THE    POLYGLOT    PETITION. 

It  is  well  known  that  our  intention  is  to  carry  the  Polygot  Petition  to  all  the 
English-speaking  countries,  to  the  Orient  and  to  the  various  European  countries 
as  they  become  better  acquainted  with  our  society,  and  the  specific  plans  of  the 
present  convention  will  be  to  develop  the  women's  temperance  movement  on  the 
continent. 

You  are  all  aware  that  two  costly  volumes,  representing  the  signatures 
secured  within  the  British  Empire,  were  sent  to  the  Queen  in  July  last  (1896), 
she  having  signified  through  her  secretary  her  willingness  to  receive  them.  We 
are  indebted  to  our  generous  comrade,  Lady  Henry  Somerset,  for  rendering  pos- 
sible this  lodgment  of  the  great  petition  in  the  palace  of  the  great  Queen. 

Under  a  Government  which  has  declared  by  the  mouth  of  Lord  Salisbury  its 
determination  to  do  nothing  for  the  temperance  people,  it  was  not  to  be  expected 
that  the  petition  would  have  had  any  such  reception  as  its  representative  charac- 
ter and  unequaled  number  of  signatures  should  have  demanded.  It  was  our 
hope  that  the  Liberal  Government  would  receive  the  petition,  and  we  fully 
expected  to  present  it  the  week  following  the  last  Biennial  Convention  (London, 
June  16-24,  1895).  It  was  stated  by  certain  London  correspondents  that  the 
great  demonstrations  held  by  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  the 
presence  and  exhibition  of  the  Polyglot  Petition,  and  the  stirring  appeals  of  our 
representative  women,  had  much  to  do  with  forcing  the  governmental  crisis  that 
was  attributed  to  another,  and  as  it  seemed,  a  wholly  inadequate  cause,  namely,  a 
vote  expressing  lack  of  confidence  in  the  ' '  powers  that  were, ' '  because  there 
was  not  enough  ammunition  in  store  in  a  time  of  universal  peace  ! 

When  the  Polyglot  Petition  went  to  Balmoral  to  the  Queen  a  vision  came  to 
me  of  one,  lonely,  untiring  and  intrepid,  who  for  nine  years  carried  that  petition 
and  presented  it  to  forty  different  nations.  Her  record  is  imperishable,  and 
nothing  can  blot  out  its  luster  in  the  annals  of  the  organized  crusade.  You  all 
know  that  I  refer  to  our  first  round-the-world  missionary,  Mrs.  Mary  Clement 
Leavitt,  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  who  went  out  not  knowing  whither  she  went, 
and  who  changed  the  World's  W.  C.  T.  U.  from  a  purpose  and  a  hope  into  a 
living  reality. 

THE   OUTLOOK. 

I  will  not  anticipate  the  report  of  our  Secretary,  Miss  Agnes  Slack,  which 
will  pass  our  entire  work  in  review,  but  this  much  may  be  said  :  The  last  two 


1 7o  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

years  have  been  among  the  most  fruitful  since  the  World's  W.  C.  T.  U.  was 
organized  in  1883.  There  has  been  more  reaching  out  into  new  fields,  systema- 
tizing of  departments,  securing-  better  laws,  helping  on  the  enfranchisement  of 
woman.  In  our  great  auxiliary,  the  British  Woman's  Temperance  Association, 
the  salient  features  of  this  year  have  been  the  testimony  of  Lady  Henry  Somerset 
before  the  Royal  Commission  on  License,  and  the  growth  and  expansion  of  the 
Duxhurst  Industrial  Farm  Home  for  Inebriate  Women.  Ireland,  Mexico  and 
Iceland  have  been  reached,  Japan  and  Scandinavia  are  looming  up,  and  there 
are  no  retrogressive  countries  anywhere. 

The  first  National  Convention  of  Japanese  women  was  held  in  April  last,  and 
marks  the  most  significant  temperance  epoch  in  that  wonderful  new  land,  which  is 
oldest  of  all.  I  had  hoped  to  conduct  this  convention;  it  had  been  one  of  the 
cherished  dreams  of  many  years,  but  it  is  better  that  a  younger  woman  from  our 
Western  prairies  had  the  honor  and  inspiration  of  a  task  so  holy,  and  we  all 
know  that  one  more  worthy  could  not  have  been  chosen  than  that  typical  repre- 
sentative of  the  "  Y,"  Miss  Clara  Parrish,  of  Illinois.  We  hear  nothing  but  good 
of  that  loyal  heart  from  natives  or  from  missionaries,  and  have  intrusted  to  her 
the  development  of  the  home  cause  in  that  trying  but  most  inspiring  field. 


Miss  Jessie  Ackermann,  Miss  Ruth  Shaffner  and  Miss  Pratt  went  to  Iceland  to 
organize  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  soon  after  our  last  convention,  and  the  presence  of  Miss 
Johannsdottir,  president  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  of  that  island,  and  its  leading  woman 
worker,  testifies  to  the  success  of  their  visit. 

Since  April,  Mrs.  J.  K.  Barney,  of  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  who  has  been 
more  than  thirty  years  engaged  in  prison  work,  and  whose  department  of  Penal, 
Charitable  and  Reformatory  Work  is  one  of  the  most  ably  maintained  in  all  our 
list,  has  been  making  a  most  successful  trip  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  New  Zealand, 
Australia,  Tasmania,  and  she  will  probably  go  to  Egypt  and  other  Eastern 
countries  before  her  return. 

The  disappointment  that  I  have  felt  in  the  inability  of  our  dear  Lady  Henry 
Somerset  and  myself  to  go  to  Australia  as  we  had  planned,  made  me  doubly 
desirous  to  send  a  fitting  representative,  and  when  Mrs.  Barney  responded  to  the 
call  I  knew  that  the  spirit  of  loving  kindness,  mingled  with  firm  adherence  to  our 
principles,  would  characterize  her  every  word,  and  of  this  we  have  received  ample 
tokens  in  the  unanimous  expressions  of  warm  appreciation  that  have  come  from 
our  sisters  of  the  youngest  continent. 

Mrs.  Mary  H.  Hunt  has  returned  in  good  health  and  heart  from  the  Sixth 
International  Congress  against  the  abuse  of  alcoholic  drinks,  held  in  Brussels, 
August  30  to  September  3,  under  the  patronage  of  Leopold  II.,  King  of  Belgium, 
the  prime  minister,  M.  le  Jeune,  presiding.  The  topics  considered  were  : 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  171 

(i)  Alcoholic  Legislation,  Sociology  and  Political  Economy.  (2)  Education  and 
Instruction.  (3)  Alcohol  in  Medicine  and  Hygiene.  (4)  Women  in  the  Battle 
Against  Alcohol.  The  importance  of  the  work  of  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U.  was 
evinced  by  the  appointment  of  Mrs.  Hunt  as  First  Vice- President  of  this  Congress. 
Dr.  Destrees,  a  professor  in  the  University  of  Brussels,  gave  a  detailed  account  of 
experiments  showing  the  effects  of  alcohol  on  the  body.  Dr.  Forel,  Professor  in 
Zurich  University,  spoke  on  the  corruption  of  civilization  by  alcoholism,  and 
many  other  learned  professors,  publicists  and  statesmen  discussed  different  aspects 
of  the  question.  Every  paper  given,  representing  scientific  investigation,  taught 
total  abstinence  in  the  most  convincing  manner.  Baron  Plessen,  Lord  Chamber- 
lain of  Denmark,  who  was  one  of  the  delegates,  said  :  ' '  No  one  could  attend  the 
sessions  of  this  priceless  Congress  as  I  have  done  and  not  be  convinced  that  total 
abstinence  is  the  only  safe  rule  for  individual  life. ' '  His  friend,  Dr.  Combe,  from 
Switzerland,  said  that  alcohol  found  few  advocates  in  the  section  of  the  Congress 
devoted  to  medicine,  while  a  delegate  from  Germany  reported  a  Medical  Temper- 
ance Association  in  that  country,  with  a  membership  of  180  total  abstaining 
physicians.  A  delightful  reception  was  given  in  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  buildings  in  Europe,  and  the  exercises  closed  with  a  sumptuous 
banquet.  The  announcement  made  from  the  platform,  that  "  this  will  be  a  total 
abstinence  banquet,"  was  received  with  cheers.  As  Mrs.  Hunt  has  well  said, 
' '  The  existence  of  this  Congress  is  positive  proof  that  the  use  of  the  so-called 
lighter  drinks  is  no  bar  to  drunkenness,  for  the  representative  men  and  a  few 
women  amply  qualified  to  testify  concerning  the  conditions  in  their  representative 
countries,  had  met  here  for  the  express  purpose  of  considering  how  the  curse 
of  alcoholism  could  be  removed  from  the  people  of  their  wine  and  beer  drinking 
countries." 

Mrs.  Helen  M.  Stoddard,  President  of  Texas,  attended,  by  my  request,  the 
Assembly  of  the  Evangelical  Societies  of  Mexico,  which  met  in  Mexico  City, 
January  27,  1897.  Mrs.  Stoddard  went  as  a  fraternal  delegate  from  the  World's 
W.  C.  T.  U. ,  and  was  warmly  received  by  the  missionaries  of  all  denominations. 
She  organized  a  society  in  the  City  of  Mexico,  and  by  invitation  has  made  another 
trip,  even  more  successful  than  the  first,  the  people  gathering  in  large  numbers  to 
hear  her  delightful  lantern  lectures,  given  through  an  interpreter. 

OUR    DEBT   TO    CHRISTIAN   MISSIONARIES. 

The  World's  W.  C.  T.  U.  could  never  have  been  established  but  for  the 
co-operation  of  Christian  missionaries,  who  are  undoubtedly  the  best  exponents 
of  the  Gospel  that  the  Church  has  to  show.  It  is  the  fashion  nowadays  to  speak 
lightly  of  them,  but  "  may  my  right  hand  forget  its  cunning"  when  it  ceases  to 
indite  their  praise.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  find  out  all  that  is  helpful  an  the  beliefs 


172  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

of  Oriental  nations,  but  they  will  strive  in  vain  to  give  us  any  record  of  Christ- 
like  deeds  that  is  at  all  comparable  to  that  made  by  our  brothers  and  sisters, 
who,  leaving  home  and  friends,  have  consecrated  their  lives  to  making  known 
in  these  same  countries  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ,  among  which  the 
hallowed  home  of  purity  and  peace  stands  first  of  all. 

Julian  Hawthorne,  whose  reports  on  the  famine  of  India  are  regarded  as 
unrivaled  in  point  of  accuracy,  declares  that  ' '  the  only  persons  who  know  what 
is  actually  going  on  in  that  land  of  misery  are  the  missionaries,  for  they  go  about 
quietly  everywhere,  see  everything,  and  cannot  be  deceived  or  put  off  the  scent 

by  the  native  subordinates It  was  my  great  good  fortune  to  be 

thrown  with  the  missionaries  from  the  start,  and  I  was  able  to  compare  their 
methods  and  knowledge  with  those  of  the  government  people. ' '  He  says  that 
eight  million  people  have  perished  by  the  plague. 

The  following  testimony  by  Charles  Darwin,  the  greatest  scientist  of  the 
century,  ought  to  be  committed  to  memory  by  all  our  speakers  and  reprinted  in 
all  our  papers:  "  The  lesson  of  the  missionary  is  the  enchanter's  wand. 
Human  sacrifices,  the  power  of  an  idolatrous  priesthood,  infanticide,  profli- 
gacy, bloody  wars,  where  neither  women  nor  children  were  spared  —  all  these 
have  been  abolished  by  Christianity.  Where  now  is  the  car  of  Juggernaut?  It 
is  only  a  relic  exhibited  to  the  gaze  of  the  curious.  What  of  suttee,  of  infanti- 
cide, of  the  cruel  and  devilish  festivals  of  Hinduism  ?  They  are  all  gone  before 
the  power  of  Christ."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  direct  and  indirect  results  of 
missionary  work  all  over  the  world  have  been  enormous. 

ARMENIA. 

The  Sultan  ordered  the  word  '  'Armenia  "  to  be  cut  out  of  every  geography 
and  blotted  from  every  map  used  by  the  missionaries,  but  he  has  engraved  that 
word  on  human  hearts  the  world  around.  Such  words  as  ' '  liberty, "  "  prog- 
ress ' '  and  ' '  brotherhood ' '  were  erased  from  every  text-book  by  his  order,  but 
perhaps  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  an  angel  could  hardly  have  done  more  to 
emblazon  those  words  with  light  and  charm  than  by  contrast  the  Sultan  of 
Turkey  has  done  within  the  last  three  years. 

Industrial  relief  is  the  only  way  to  help  the  women  of  Armenia.  We  must 
first  teach  them  handwork  of  some  kind  and  then  provide  a  market  for  the  prod- 
uct. The  organization  thus  far  effected  in  Constantinople  is  this  —  the  commit- 
tee communicates  with  the  various  places  where  work  is  done,  as  Oorfa,  Van, 
etc. ,  and  receives  the  finished  work.  Salesrooms  are  opened  in  Constantinople 
and  other  seaport  towns,  for  tourists  and  people  in  the  city  itself ;  these  are  sup- 
plied with  work  by  the  Constantinople  committee.  Orders  are  also  sent  for 
work  to  be  sold  in  the  various  centers  all  over  Europe.  London,  Edinburgh, 
Geneva,  Frankfort,  .Wurtemberg,  Munich  and  Paris  have  now  each  their  own 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  173 

bureau,  committees  and  centers  for  sale.  It  is  astonishing  to  know  how  much 
the  work  is  liked,  and  how  large  orders  are  sent  to  Constantinople.  One  order 
of  ;£i,ooo  has  been  received  from  Edinburgh.  In  three  weeks,  1,000  francs' 
worth  was  sold  in  Constantinople  itself,  and  the  work  has  supported  over  1,500 
people  in  Oorfa  alone  the  past  year. 

GREECE. 

A  small  part  of  our  Armenian  fund  was  used  in  helping  to  send  nurses  to 
the  Greek  army,  on  the  basis  that  nothing  better  could  happen  the  Armenians 
than  for  the  Greeks  to  succeed,  but  that  success  was  not  written  in  the  book  of 
destiny,  and  today,  as  a  result  of  the  prestige  of  his  victory  over  this  nation,  for 
which  our  sympathies  are  so  sincere,  the  Sultan  is  once  more  in  the  saddle  with 
prosperity  for  his  ally,  and  it  has  been  proved  to  the  world  that  Germany's 
money  investments  in  Turkey  and  her  contribution  of  skilled  officers  for  the 
army  of  the  Sultan,  are  decisive  factors  in  restoring  to  the  Great  Assassin  the 
power  that  had  well-nigh  slipped  from  his  grasp.  This  is  a  spectacle  that  might 
make  angels  weep  and  mortals  give  up  hope,  did  we  not  know  that  the  disinte- 
grating power  of  Christian  education  is  steadily  at  work  under  the  dastardly 
empire  of  the  Turk,  which  means  that  God's  hand  is  under  it,  and  we  have  no 
more  doubt  that  the  accursed  empire  will  be  ground  so  fine  that  no  vestige  of  it 
will  remain,  than  we  have  that  the  steam  engine  has  displaced  the  stage  coach, 
or  that  the  common  school  is  a  later  evolution  than  the  senseless  jargon  of 
Turkish  boys  repeating  the  Koran  in  the  Mosque  of  Saint  Sophia. 

HOMES   FOR   INEBRIATES. 

One  of  the  reasons  why  we  have  many  departments  in  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  is 
that  different  minds  are  attracted  to  different  lines  of  work,  and  by  arranging  our 
plans  under  many  subdivisions  we  win  the  allegiance  and  help  of  a  much  larger 
group  of  good  women  than  we  could  by  any  other  method.  To  some  it  is  given 
to  work  for  the  fallen,  others  have  a  passion  for  preventing  the  fall;  some  believe 
in  persuasive,  others  in  legal  forces,  but  no  group  of  workers  is  more  germane  to 
the  Crusade  idea  than  that  which  devotes  its  gentle  energies  to  the  reformation  of 
the  fallen.  No  attempt  of  this  kind  has  impressed  me  so  deeply  as  that  of 
Duxhurst,  founded  by  the  British  Woman's  Temperance  Association,  and  by 
them  placed  under  the  care  of  Lady  Henry  Somerset.  It  is  a  farm  village  about 
thirty  miles  from  London,  and  four  miles  from  Lady  Henry's  home  at  the  Priory, 
Reigate.  Simple  but  attractive  cottages  have  been  provided,  in  each  of  which 
six  women  find  a  home,  of  which  they  take  all  the  care,  and  invest  the  remainder 
of  their  time  in  gardening,  dairy  work,  or  any  one  of  several  avocations  for 
which  arrangements  have  been  made.  Each  cottage  is  under  the  supervision  of 
a  young  woman  who  has  received  special  religious  and  medical  training  for  her 
work,  and  the  whole  are  supervised  by  a  sister  of  remarkable  ability  and  expe- 
rience. The  women  take  their  meals  together,  and  meet  daily  in  the  recreation 


i74  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

hall,  where  exercises  interesting  and  amusing  are  arranged.  They  have  also 
temperance  and  gospel  meetings  every  week,  and  there  is  a  church  as  well  as  a 
hospital  near  by.  These  women  are  consigned  to  this  farm  colony  chiefly  by 
police  justices,  who,  instead  of  condemning  them  to  work  out  sentences,  deem  it 
wiser  to  give  them  into  the  care  of  the  Duxhurst  temperance  women,  who  at 
once  bring  to  bear  upon  them  the  saving  education  of  home  life  and  congenial 
occupation,  with  a  loving  unsectarian  religious  influence.  One  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful efforts  to  brighten  the  lot  of  these  women  is  the  establishing  of  a  children' s 
home  in  connection  with  the  village,  where  little  waifs  from  London  come  for  an 
outing,  the  constant  presence  and  needs  of  the  little  people  making  an  appeal  to 
what  is  best  in  the  nature  of  these  friendless  ones. 

There  seems  to  be  but  one  rule,  and  that  is,  if  a  woman  leaves  this  lovely 
retreat  she  shall  not  be  allowed  to  come  back;  but  she  is  not  likely  to  leave  unless 
the  dreadful  thirst  drives  her  to  it,  or  she  has  in  some  way  outraged  the  kindness 
and  good  will  with  which  she  is  surrounded.  In  point  of  fact,  the  women  seldom 
run  away;  they  are  too  glad  to  get  into  this  happy  place,  and  a  large  proportion 
go  from  it  clothed  with  new  purposes  and  right-minded  toward  the  temptation 
whose  slaves  they  have  been  in  the  past. 

It  is  said  by  prison  experts  in  England  that  this  better  method  of  caring  for 
those  who  have  laid  themselves  liable  to  the  law  is  shedding  a  flood  of  light  upon 
the  possibilities  of  prison  reform,  and  as  an  object  lesson  to  the  whole  Empire  its 
teaching  is  invaluable.  I  wish  we  might  see  a  similar  colony  in  each  country  to 
which  our  work  has  extended,  because  we  have  been  from  the  first  devoted  to  the 
idea  of  an  improvement  in  the  condition  of  prisoners. 

Our  dear  Mrs.  Barney,  now  in  Australia,  and  from  whose  work  there  come  to 
us  only  tidings  of  good,  has  been  longer  at  work  for  this  cause  than  any  other  of 
our  experts.  In  Lady  Henry  Somerset,  Mrs.  Barney  and  Mrs.  Maud  Ballington 
Booth,  of  the  American  Volunteers,  we  have  a  trio  of  prison  reformers  whose 
work  is  of  international  significance. 

We  are  not  without  homes  for  inebriate  women  in  this  country;  the  Martha 
Washington  Home  (Chicago),  founded  in  1882,  had  sheltered  in  1896  a  total  of 
620  patients.  It  is  conducted  by  a  Board  of  Directors,  and  has  made  for  itself 
an  excellent  record.  The  treasurer's  report  shows  over  $40,000  received  and  dis- 
bursed in  1895. 

I  think  we  should  give  notice,  and  I  hereby  do  so,  of  the  intention  to  add  to 
our  present  list  a  department  of  work  for  the  reformation  of  women  inebriates, 
and  I  hope  the  work  already  being  done  in  the  two  homes  I  have  mentioned  may 
be  carefully  studied  and  its  best  features  incorporated  into  the  plans  that  we 
announce  next  year. 

NOTE.— The  Washingtonian  Home,  Chicago,  is  a  retreat  for  men  inebriates,  and  pro- 
vides for  their  reformation  and  restoration  to  their  homes.  Its  work  extends  over  a  third  of 
a  century,  and  in  1896,  655  patients  were  admitted. 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C  T.  U.  175 

HABITUAL    DRUNKARDS. 

A  student  of  the  temperance  reform  finds  no  more  significant  change  in 
public  sentiment  than  that  which  proposes  to  deal  with  the  drunkard  as  one  who 
commits  a  crime  against  society.  The  drunkard  maker  has  long  been  regarded 
in  that  light  by  temperance  people,  but  they  have  been  perhaps  too  lenient  toward 
the  ' '  finished  product ' '  of  the  liquor  business.  The  studies  of  Sir  Benjamin 
Ward  Richardson  and  other  famous  experts  have  proved  that  alcoholism  is  a  dis- 
ease, while  the  studies  of  religious  and  ethical  experts  have  proved  it  a  crime 
against  both  natural  and  spiritual  laws.  Now  comes  the  statesman,  and  his  posi- 
tion is  that  the  drunkard  is  an  enemy  of  society  and  an  unmitigated  nuisance  and 
a  danger  in  the  home.  He,  therefore,  proposes  that  the  State  shall  found  indus- 
trial homes  in  which  drunkards  shall  be  detained  by  order  of  the  Court. 

England  has  already  gone  a  long  way  toward  securing  such  a  law.  It  has 
passed  the  House  of  Commons,  and  the  next  Parliament  will  undoubtedly  place 
the  subject  before  its  members. 

The  Austrian  Government  is  about  to  introduce  a  bill  which  proposes  to  treat 
the  drunkard  as  a  person  mentally  incapable  and  likely  to  inflict  injury  upon  the 
community,  not  only  by  actual  violence  but  by  example,  and  to  provide  for  him 
a  term  of  detention,  which  is  to  be  two  years,  with  power  to  extend  or  diminish 
the  time  according  to  results.  For  ourselves  we  believe  in  the  "  Do  Everything 
Policy  ' '  for  the  drunkard.  We  favor  the  Keeley  Cure,  the  Christian  Home  for 
inebriate  men,  the  Gospel  meeting,  the  temperance  pledge.  All  of  these  are  helps 
that  should  be  gratefully  recognized  by  those  who  are  trying  to  deliver  men  from 
bondage.  We  hold,  as  we  have  always  held,  to  the  Gospel  cure  as  the  only 
complete  deliverance,  and  we  believe  this  view  to  be  founded  on  a  philosophical 
basis,  which  has  perhaps  never  been  better  expressed  than  by  Dr.  Horace  Bush- 
nell  in  his  well-known  phrase,  ' '  The  expulsive  power  of  a  new  affection  ' ' ;  for 
when  the  love  of  God  dwells  at  the  center  of  a  man's  being,  it  works  out  through 
all  his  senses,  habits  and  manner  of  life,  uplifting,  purifying  and  cleansing  all. 
But  we  confidently  believe  that  a  house  of  detention  where  men  might  "  sober 
up  ' '  would  help  them  to  perceive  more  clearly  the  infinite  power  of  a  Christian 
life  to  take  them  out  of  bondage.  We  also  believe  that  to  arrest  the  drunkard, 
no  matter  what  his  social  position,  and  to  place  him  in  custody,  would  greatly 
deter  the  ignorant  and  thoughtless  from  looking  lightly  upon  such  a  brutalized 
condition,  and  would  thus  be  of  incalculable  service  in  stamping  the  drunkard 
with  the  displeasure  of  the  community  in  which  he  moves  about  as  a  perpetual 
danger. 

Holding  these  views,  we  shall  never  cease  to  urge  upon  the  women  of  the 
W.  C.  T.  U.  their  duty  to  use  their  utmost  power  to  induce  the  legislatures  of 
our  respective  States  to  pass  these  laws  of  detention  under  the  name  of  the 
"Habitual  Drunkards'  Act." 


176  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

HEROIC    EXAMPLES. 

The  daily  press  should  have  its  columns  perpetually  clothed  in  black,  so 
heartrending  are  the  recitals  that  it  brings  of  bloody  deeds.  Perhaps  the  pessi- 
mism of  the  age  finds  much  of  its  explanation  in  the  universal  newspaper  reading, 
that  in  its  totality  must  leave  a  painful  impact  on  the  brain.  If  only  a  single 
daily  paper  would  undertake  to  give  us  better  tidings  !  Who  will  start  The  Good 
News,  The  Brotherly  World,  The  Helpful  Journal,  The  Merry  Mail,  Tlie  Glad 
Gazette  ?  Who  will  take  as  the  motto  of  his  paper  that  of  our  press  department : 
"  Let  us  so  tell  the  story  of  the  world  today  that  the  world's  story  shall  be  hap- 
pier tomorrow ' '  ? 

Many  rills  of  pure  influence  have  been  flowing  into  the  turbid  stream  of 
daily  journalism  from  the  White  Ribbon  homemakers  in  the  past  year.  Is  it 
becoming  an  instinct  with  us  to  send  every  bit  of  hopeful  news  we  know  to  our 
friend,  the  editor  ? 

Until  journalism  gives  us  better  cheer,  we  must  go  back  to  those  radiant 
illustrations  of  what  humanity  has  done  to  prove  its  kinship  to  our  heavenly 
Father.  I  think  of  the  little  girl  in  Kansas  City,  whom  the  cyclone  hurled  into 
the  basement  of  the  great  schoolhouse  full  of  studious  children  ;  when  one  of  our 
own  workers  approached  to  try  to  lift  the  little  creature  from  under  the  beam 
where  her  soft  limbs  were  crushed,  she  moved  her  white  lips,  and  said  with  her 
dying  voice,  ' '  Help  Willie  first,  he  is  smaller  than  I. ' ' 

I  think  of  the  poor  factory  girl  at  Pemberton  Mills,  whose  sweet  notes  as 
she  sang  in  the  village  choir  had  endeared  her  to  the  people,  and  who,  in  her  last 
hours,  as  the  flames  gathered  around  her  when  the  desperate  efforts  to  rescue  had 
all  failed,  was  heard  singing  high  above  the  roaring  of  the  flames,  "I'm  going 
home  to  die  no  more. ' '  I  think  of  the  men  who,  when  the  Oregon  was  thought 
to  be  sinking,  stood  quietly  back  and  made  way  for  the  women  and  children  to 
be  lowered  into  the  boats.  I  think  of  General  Gordon  at  Khartoum,  steadily 
facing  death  and  watching  for  the  troops  that  never  came,  while  his  great  man- 
hood never  lost  its  equipoise  and  his  dauntless  soul  held  its  steady  upward  lift 
toward  God.  I  think  of  Wilson's  troopers  on  the  far-away  Shangani  strand, 
when,  overwhelmed  by  hopeless  numbers,  their  little  group  stood  together  and 
sang,  as  they  died,  ' '  God  Save  the  Queen. ' ' 

I  think  of  Lord  Shaftesbury,  disavowed  by  his  peers,  but  forging  steadily 
on  to  secure  laws  that  should  protect  the  hapless  little  workers  in  the  mines  of 
Britain;  and  of  the  barefoot  newsboy  who,  standing  at  the  window  of  a  picture- 
shop  and  seeing  Shaftesbury '  s  face,  pointed  his  comrade  proudly  to  it,  saying, 
"  He  is  our  Earl." 

I  think  of  Agnes  Weston,  "the  mother  of  the  bluejackets,"  who,  having 
neither  home  nor  child,  has  by  a  life  of  uttermost  devotion  made  for  herself  a 
home  in  the  warm  hearts  of  the  British  tars.  I  think  of  Lady  Henry  Somerset, 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  177 

speaking  to  the  hoppickers  in  Herefordshire,  the  miners  in  Wales,  the  inebriate 
women  at  Duxhurst,  and  who,  foregoing  a  life  of  ease  and  pleasure,  has  set 
before  the  women  of  her  order  in  the  Queen's  empire  an  object  lesson  of  helpful 
service  that  has  exalted  every  home  and  made  more  helpful  every  heart.  I  think 
of  Helen  Keller,  the  wonderful  girl  who  has  from  earliest  remembrance  lost  every 
sense  but  that  of  touch,  and  yet  through  the  immeasurable  patience  of  the  rare 
young  woman  who  is  her  teacher,  having  become  so  intelligent  that  she  has 
passed  the  examinations  to  enter  Ratcliffe  College,  and  who,  on  being  recently 
asked  by  her  teacher  for  a  definition  of  love,  eagerly  spelled  out  with  her  expert 
little  fingers,  ' '  Love  is  that  which  everybody  feels  for  everybody  else. ' ' 

Surely  with  such  examples  of  the  exaltation,  of  the  tenderness  and  purity  to 
which  humanity  may  be  lifted  upon  Christ's  cross  of  sacrifice,  we  will  take  heart 
of  hope  and  move  steadily  forward,  hand  in  hand,  with  faces  lifted  that  the 
Spirit's  light  may  fall  upon  them  from  above. 

WOMEN'S  ENFRANCHISEMENT. 

It  would  seem  that  the  heavenly  fiat  has  gone  forth  and  no  large  advances 
are  to  be  made  hereafter  by  men  alone  in  the  great  realms  of  Church  and  State, 
from  which  their  laws  have  debarred  those  loving  and  sagacious  advisers  who, 
as  the  best  of  them  are  free  to  admit,  have  been  to  them  the  strength  and  joy  of 
life. 

One  of  our  poets  represents  America  as  saying  : 

"  Bring  me  men  to  match  my  mountains, 
Bring  me  men  to  match  my  plains; 
Men  with  empires  in  their  purpose 
And  new  eras  in  their  brains." 

This  prayer  is  being  answered  in  the  West,  in  New  Zealand,  and  in  some  of  our 
Australian  provinces,  but  man-made  government  is  bearing  fruit  in  English  diplo- 
macy at  Constantinople  and  Athens;  in  the  mock  trial  of  Cecil  Rhodes  of  South 
Africa;  the  C.  D.  Acts  of  India;  in  the  mutterings  of  Germany  and  France,  the 
despotism  of  Spain,  the  prostration  of  Cuba;  all  showing  forth  the  decadence  of 
an  out-worn  regime. 

As  is  well  known,  Norway  has  called  in  the  help  of  women  in  its  efforts  to 
solve  the  drink  problem,  all  above  twenty-five  years  of  age  having  been  made 
voters  on  the  temperance  question.  In  1895,  of  twelve  towns  voting,  ten  voted 
down  the  government  saloon;  in  1896,  seven  other  towns  voted,  and  five  of  them 
voted  it  down ;  this  year  eleven  have  voted,  but  we  have  not  as  yet  the  result,  and 
next  year  twelve  will  vote  under  the  local  option  law,  so  that  by  the  united  efforts 
of  temperance  men  and  women  it  looks  as  if  the  Gothenburg  system  will  disappear 
and  prohibition  will  be  the  law  of  Norway. 

It  is  probable  that  we  have  never  had  a  more  comprehensive  argument  for 
12 


i78  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

woman  suffrage  than  that  priceless  sentence  from  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  said, 
' '  No  person  is  good  enough  to  govern  another  without  his  consent. ' ' 

One  of  the  best  results  of  the  ballot  for  women  will  be  the  greater  willingness 
of  men  to  vote.  The  stay-at-home  vote  constantly  increases,  and  the  Boston 
Arena  vouches  for  the  statement  that  in  some  cities  less  than  thirty  per  cent  of  the 
voters  cast  the  ballot,  and  in  twenty-four  of  our  largest  cities  barely  half  the  voters 
go  to  the  polls.  But  it  is  observed  that  in  cities  where  women  have  the  ballot  a 
much  larger  proportion  of  men  exercise  the  liberty  of  the  franchise. 

Temperance  and  woman's  ballot  will  be  helped  by  women  in  business. 
Being  in  business  they  will  not  be  so  much  in  haste  to  marry,  thus  seeking  a 
support ;  they  will  be  better  able  to  select,  and  they  will  not  select  men  who  are 
under  the  influence  of  bad  habits,  therefore  men  will  have  to  brush  up  a  bit. 
Again,  the  fact  that  men  and  women  meet  constantly  in  business  will  cause  men 
to  improve  their  habits  ;  unconsciously  they  will  feel  that  they  wish  to  be  more 
presentable,  and  the  purity  of  the  woman's  habits  will  have  its  effect  upon  them, 
just  as  it  does  in  our  coeducational  schools,  while  the  presence  of  men  will  make 
women  less  petty  and  personal  in  their  topics  of  discourse,  will  broaden  their 
outlook  and  give  them  a  clearer  judgment  in  all  their  business  affairs  and  a 
' '  calm  view ' '  of  everyday  annoyances. 

The  press  is  always  alert  to  thrust  in  a  javelin  when  it  has  or  can  make  an 
opportunity.  In  pursuance  of  this  object  we  had  Associated  Press  dispatches 
immediately  following  this  year's  election  in  New  Zealand,  with  startling  head- 
lines to  the  effect  that  women  had  voted  against  prohibition.  Feeling  sure  this 
was  not  true,  I  wrote  Miss  Powell,  the  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U. 
of  New  Zealand,  and  it  seems  worth  while  to  give  her  answer  in  full : 

"By  a  resolution  of  the  Convention  just  held  in  Christ  Church,  I  was 
requested  to  send  an  official  reply  to  your  letter  of  December  14,  1896,  supple- 
menting that  of  our  beloved  New  Zealand  President.  We  are  constantly  receiving 
fresh  light  upon  the  recent  local  option  poll,  and  as  time  goes  on  are  more  and 
more  encouraged  as  to  our  own  position,  and  more  and  more  sorrowful  at  the 
deceit  and  corruption  which  are  brought  to  light.  We  are  fully  convinced  that 
we  never  shall  know  the  strength  of  our  vote,  which  was  much  greater  than  it 
appears,  though  even  the  98,372  no-license  votes  with  which  we  are  officially 
credited,  as  against  48,993  in  1894,  give  great  cause  for  thankfulness.  To  have 
more  than  doubled  our  votes  in  two  years  and  nine  months  is  surely  a  good 
record,  and  if  during  the  next  three  years  we  can  add  another  fifty  thousand  the 
victory  will  be  ours.  The  votes  in  different  districts  seem  to  have  been  counted 
in  as  many  different  ways  as  was  possible  ;  but  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  all  the 
mistakes  and  blunders  seem  to  have  favored  the  drink  party.  I  have  not  heard 
of  a  single  vote  for  continuance  being  counted  to  no-license,  though  in  numberless 
instances  the  reverse  has  been  true. 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  179 

"  By  way  of  explanation,  let  me  say  that  the  voting  papers  read  as  follows: 
'  I  vote  that  the  present  number  of  licenses  be  continued. ' 
'  I  vote  that  the  present  number  of  licenses  be  reduced. ' 
'  I  vote  that  no  licenses  be  granted. ' 

' '  As  each  elector  can  vote  on  two  issues,  we  were  advised  by  the  Prohibition 
League  to  strike  out  the  top  line,  when,  if  no-license  failed  to  be  carried,  our 
votes  would  also  stand  for  reduction,  and  a  hymn  called  '  Strike  out  the  top 
line '  was  sung  at  all  our  meetings,  up  and  down  the  country.  This  helped  to 
fix  the  instructions  in  our  memory,  and  hundreds  of  us  voted  thus,  only  to  find 
subsequently  that  in  certain  districts  such  votes  were  either  discarded  as  informal 
or  counted  only  for  reduction.  One  feature  of  the  struggle  was  the  marked  way 
in  which  all  temperance  bodies  throughout  the  Colony  acted  in  concert  with  the 
Prohibition  League.  We  are  highly  favored  in  this  land  in  our  grand  leaders, 
the  Isill  brothers,  to  whom  all  are  affectionately  loyal.  The  prevailing  feeling 
now  is  one  of  thankfulness  for  past  successes,  coupled  with  an  earnest  determina- 
tion to  work  still  harder  for  the  next  local  option  poll.  At  the  same  time,  we 
shall  insist  upon  fresh  legislation  whereby  past  mistakes  may  be  rendered 
impossible. 

"  We  have  had  a  most  successful  Convention,  marked  specially  by  Christ's 
own  spirit  of  love. ' ' 

ECCLESIASTICAL    EMANCIPATION. 

Ecclesiastically  there  is  a  great  awakening;  the  voice  of  Christ  rings  in  our 
ears  saying,  as  of  old,  ' '  In  vain  do  ye  worship  me,  teaching  for  doctrines  the 
commandments  of  men." 

Whether  in  Church  or  State,  the  human  intellect  has  developed  to  the  point 
of  perceiving  that  men  are  nothing  but  men,  and  that  infallibility  is  absolutely 
absent  from  their  proceedings;  that  their  creeds,  whether  in  Church  or  State, 
whether  of  political  economy  in  commerce  or  of  co-ordination  of  power  in  the 
home,  are  merely  the  opinions  held  at  a  given  time,  and  in  the  order  of  nature 
must  give  place  to  the  more  reasonable  opinions  that  successive  generations  form 
as  the  outcome  of  a  longer  experience,  and  from  a  more  acute  perception  of  their 
relation  to  their  ever-changing  environment. 

Atone  of  the  congresses  connected  with  the  World's  Fair  in  1893,  a  Catholic 
bishop  prayed  at  the  opening  of  a  Council  of  Jewish  women,  they  having  invited 
his,  presence  and  co-operation.  No  more  significant  sign  of  the  times  could  be 
cited  than  this.  We  all  perceive  that  unless  religion  is  converted  into  terms  of 
conduct  that  holy  thing  becomes  a  mockery;  doubtless  the  motto  of  the  age  to 
come  will  be  those  words  of  Christ:  "Why  call  ye  me  Lord,  Lord,  but  do  not 
the  things  that  I  say  ? ' ' 

Happy  are  we  who  live  in  an  age  when  ' '  Names  and  creeds  and  altars  fall, 


i8o  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

and  our  Christ  is  all  and  all."  For  He  and  He  alone  brought  to  the  world  eman- 
cipating truth;  He  is  the  universal  solvent;  the  Searchlight  of  the  mind  and  the 
dynamo  of  that  Love  which  is  the  only  inexorable  force  of  which  we  are  aware. 

PEACE   AND   ARBITRATION. 

"Thicker  than  water  in  one  rill, 

Through  centuries  of  story, 
Our  Saxon  blood  has  flowed,  and  still 
We  share  with  you  the  good  and  ill, 

The  shadow  and  the  glory." 

The  greatest  practical  advantage  of  arbitration  is  that  men  may  deliberately 
choose  when  they  are  not  angry  with  each  other  a  method  by  which,  should  they 
become  angry,  they  could  settle  their  dispute  without  resorting  to  blows.  By 
this  means  they  invoke  clear-eyed  reason  instead  of  leaving  their  lives  to  hang  on 
the  thread  of  sudden  passion.  It  is  the  highest  instinct  of  self-preservation  and 
protection  for  the  individual,  the  family  and  State  that  has  ever  been  thought  out, 
and  could  occur  to  the  mind  of  no  nation  until  it  had  long  been  saturated  with 
the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

The  cause  of  peace  has  won  great  victories  this  year.  The  Arbitration 
Treaty  with  our  Mother  Country  is  only  lying  over;  already  we  have  reason  to 
believe  that  through  the  influence  of  the  President,  arrangements  are  being  made 
for  the  presentation  of  another  treaty  of  wider  scope,  and  it  is  not  improbable 
that  we  may  soon  be  saying,  ' '  How  good  it  was  to  reject  the  less  valuable  that 
we  might  gain  a  greater,  even  a  universal  treaty  of  peace. ' ' 

The  Storthing  of  Norway  has  appointed  a  committee  of  nine  to  consider  the 
question  of  forming  arbitration  treaties  with  foreign  nations,  and  to  submit  pro- 
posals to  that  end.  It  is  well  known  that  France  is  moving  in  the  same  direction, 
and  the  recent  declarations  of  the  Russian  Czar  and  the  Emperor  of  Germany 
are  unmistakably  in  favor  of  pacific  measures,  while  the  treaty  between  Turkey 
and  Greece,  recently  promulgated  by  the  Powers,  is  a  peace  triumph,  even 
though  it  registers  the  subserviency  of  Christian  nations  to  the  great  Moslem 
hierarchy. 

PURITY. 

1 '  Whoever  sounds  the  highest  moral  note  does  the  -most  for  his  country. ' ' 
"  If  I  forget  thee,  O  Jerusalem"  (and  to  me,  humanity's  Jerusalem  is  ever- 
more the  home),  "  may  my  right  hand  forget  her  cunning,  and  my  tongue  cleave 
to  the  roof  of  my  mouth. ' '  By  God' s  grace,  I  will  always  stand  with  you,  my 
comrades,  for  those  holy  principles  of  action  that  build  strong  defences  around 
the  sanctuary  where  two  have  united  their  dearest  earthly  destinies,  and  where 
the  hallowed  light  of  a  child's  face  is  to  them,  even  as  it  is  to  us,  the  beacon  of  a 
better  world. 


FOUNDER    OF    WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  181 

Wendell  Phillips  declared  a  great  principle  when  he  said,  "  Plant  only  the 
tiniest  seed  of  concession;  you  know  not  how  many  and  how  tall  branches  of 
mischief  shall  grow  therefrom." 

The  Faculty  of  the  University  of  Christiana  has  recently  put  forward  a  state- 
ment on  the  subject  of  ' '  Continence  and  Health, ' '  that  ought  to  be  reproduced 
throughout  the  press.  I  quote  in  part:  "The  recent  declarations  of  certain 
persons  that  a  chaste  life  and  continence  are  injurious  to  health,  are,  in  our  view, 
wholly  false.  We  know  of  no  disease  or  of  any  weakness  which  can  be  said  to 
be  the  result  of  a  perfectly  pure,  chaste  life.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have  a  num- 
ber of  diseases  which  follow  in  the  wake  of  licentiousness.  If  we  could  imagine 
prostitution  abolished,  we  could  imagine  the  prompt  eradication  of  these  scourges. 
Without  its  abolition,  we  cannot.  Those  who  believe  that  its  legal  control  (in 
itself  a  sociological  chimera)  can  prevent  the  dissemination  of  infection,  occupy 
an  unscientific  ground,  one  which  is  not  assumed  in  reference  to  any  other  infec- 
tious disease." 

For  there  is  a  higher  law:  "Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery";  second, 
' '  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself. ' '  Whatever  degrades  the  women  of 
India  puts  the  stamp  of  deterioration  upon  all  women.  To  this  it  will  be  replied 
that  they  have  degraded  themselves,  and  the  means  proposed  are  only  to  miti- 
gate the  consequences;  but  it  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world  to  us  whether 
their  degradation  came  about  through  any  forces  that  we  have  set  in  motion 
either  before  or  after  the  facts.  By  parity  of  reasoning,  we  might  say  the  saloon 
is  here,  and  here  it  will  remain;  let  us  do  all  we  can  to  make  it  less  degraded. 
But  this  is  not  the  point;  our  attitude  toward  the  saloon,  first,  last  and  always,  is 
an  attitude  of  utter  hostility,  and  it  makes  all  the  difference  between  right  and 
wrong  whether  its  presence  among  us  is  in  spite  of  our  protest  and  work,  or 
whether  we  have  taken  measures  that  render  its  continuance  probable.  Besides 
this,  we  must  remember  that  although  military  officers  may  not  think  so,  the 
moral  contamination  of  the  future  husbands  and  fathers  of  England  is  a  calamity 
immeasurably  greater  than  their  physical  deterioration.  The  foundation  and  the 
keystone  in  the  arch  of  heathenism  is  the  sacrifice  of  woman's  purity  on  the  altar 
of  man' s  sensuality ;  and  if  there  is  one  monstrous  thing  which  above  another 
represents  the  Antichrist,  it  is  that  fact.  In  oriental  countries  women  are  help- 
less in  the  hands  of  men,  as  they  have  been  through  the  dark  centuries;  and  the 
depths  of  degradation  to  which  this  utter  dependence  has  reduced  them,  are 
beyond  all  power  of  western  comprehension. 

The  English  law  in  the  Straits  Settlements  is  said  to  be  "  for  the  protection 
of  Chinese  girls ' ' ;  none  are  allowed  to  register  as  prostitutes  except  of  ' '  their 
own  free  will,"  and  "with  the  consent  of  their  mothers."  But  women  physi- 
cians among  the  missionaries  testify  that  they  have  treated  little  Chinese  girls, 
four  and  five  years  of  age,  who  had  been  bought  in  north  China  and  taken  south 


1 82  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

to  be  raised  for  vile  purposes,  and  who,  when  they  were  made  to  register,  would 
never  dare  to  say  the  woman  with  which  each  one  was  living  was  not  her 
"mother."  As  for  "  her  own  free  will,"  none  of  these  poor  creatures  ever  had 
a  free  will,  or  ever  will  have.  And  this  is  the  protection  that  England  affords  to 
Chinese  girls.  It  is  well  known  that  the  moral  tone  of  army  life  is  very  low  in 
oriental  countries,  and  to  expect  that  military  men  would  ever  subject  their  sol- 
diers to  examination  and  registration  because  they  had  visited  these  women  whom 
they  have  provided,  is  to  cherish  an  idle  hope. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  Lady  Henry  Somerset  has  never  dreamed  of 
applying  the  method  she  advocates  outside  the  British  Army  in  India,  and  the 
mistake  she  made  (for  we  all  think  it  a  grievous  mistake,  much  as  we  love  her) 
was  in  advocating  a  measure  whereby  the  ' '  equality  of  men  and  women  "  in  an 
act  that  degrades  both,  and  strikes  at  the  very  foundation  of  the  integrity  of 
home,  comes  to  be  an  equality  that  levels  down  instead  of  up,  that  blurs  the 
moral  sense  of  those  who  administer  hardly  less  than  of  those  who  engage  in  it, 
and  will  no  doubt  prove  as  difficult  of  execution  as  the  plain,  clear-cut,  ' '  Thou 
shalt  not,"  which  is  the  only  edict  pronounced  in  God's  laws  of  nature  or  of  grace. 

We  hold  that  it  was  not  right  to  cut  down  the  proportion  of  married  soldiers 
in  India  from  33  to  6  per  cent ;  that  it  was  not  right  to  leave  them  without 
specific  moral  instruction  and  helpful  recreation  ;  that  it  was  not  right,  and  never 
will  be  right,  to  arrange  for  them  to  have  the  services  of  the  State  Church  and 
the  services  of  ' '  the  poor  little  women  of  India ' '  in  the  same  cantonment. 

We  cannot  check  an  immoral  disease  by  measures  which  recognize  the  sin  as 
something  to  be  regulated  rather  than  prohibited.  This  is  the  crux  of  the  situa- 
tion. We  believe  that  the  moral  injury  to  the  soldier,  resulting  from  any  possible 
provision  for  the  dishonor  that  he  works  upon  himself  and  a  poor,  ignorant  and 
debased  woman,  is  unworthy  that  Christian  Empire  whose  Queen  declares  that 
the  Bible  is  the  foundation  of  her  government.  And  we  believe  there  is  no  blot 
upon  her  throne  so  deep  and  indelible  as  that  these  wretched  little  beings,  pro- 
vided for  the  soldiers  of  India  by  its  Government,  universally  bear  the  name  of 
"the  Queen's  women." 

We  rejoice  that  Sir  George  White,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Forces  in 
India,  has  made  a  manly  and  outspoken  deliverance  at  the  present  crisis  ;  he 
points  out  ' '  that  the  majority  of  the  venereal  cases  are  found  within  a  narrow 
circle  of  men,  who  are  admitted  to  the  hospital  again  and  again,  and  thus  the 
numbers  of  admission  are  swelled. ' '  He  holds  that  the  only  reasonable  way  to 
deal  with  such  men  is  to  punish  them,  and  declares  that  they  are  fitting  subjects 
for  all  the  discipline  that  can  be  imposed  upon  them,  as  they  habitually  render 
themselves  unfit  to  fulfill  the  engagements  they  have  entered  into  with  the  State, 
and  throw  upon  their  more  self-respecting  comrades  the  burden  of  their  own 
duty." 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C  T.  U.  183 

The  defense  of  the  down-trodden  often  comes  from  unexpected  quarters, 
and  the  warning  uttered  by  Mrs.  Steel,  the  famous  novelist,  who  has  lived  in 
India  many  years,  may  yet  be  heeded  by  her  countrymen  in  time  to  prevent  the 
re-introduction  of  those  C.  D.  Acts  to  which  our  British  leader  has  declared  her- 
self as  much  opposed  as  we  are.  Mrs.  Steel  says  : 

' '  Knowing  the  women  of  India  as  I  do,  I  feel  it  would  be  cowardly  to  keep 
silence  in  the  face  of  what  is  being  done  against  them.  The  proposed  legislation 
is  most  unwise  at  such  a  time  as  the  present,  when,  to  my  eyes,  all  that  is  needed 
to  change  ignorant  dissatisfaction  to  ignorant  defiance  is  some  common  cause, 
such  as  unscrupulous  agitators  found  forty  years  ago  in  the  '  greased  cartridge. ' 
I  only  venture  to  remind  those  in  power  that  men  are  always  ready  to  fight  for 
their  gods  or  their  women;  and  that  knowing,  as  I  do,  the  vast  credulity  of  the 
masses  in  India,  I  do  not  see  how  any  new  legislation  regarding  women  can  be 
other  than  a  weapon  of  calamity  given  into  our  enemies'  hands  at  a  most  critical 
time. ' ' 

But  let  us  hear  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  as  it  appears  to  us.  No 
provision  shall  ever  be  tolerated  by  us  for  the  illicit  gratification  of  any  man's 
desire,  and  the  only  word  we  have  for  the  English  soldier  in  India  and  his  poor 
little  sisters  of  an  abject  race,  is  the  word,  not  of  Holy  Writ,  for  that  might  have 
little  weight  with  him;  not  of  the  White  Ribbon  women,  for  that  would  be 
received  with  jeers  and  anger,  but  the  word  of  a  great  physician  than  whom  none 
has  deserved  more  profound  respect  from  his  contemporaries,  Sir  Benjamin 
Ward  Richardson,  who,  in  commenting  on  the  most  loathsome  disease  that 
impurity  causes,  has  left  on  record  these  golden  words: 

' '  Every  kind  of  remedy  has  been  proposed  for  this  disease,  every  kind  of 
means  has  been  carried  out  for  its  prevention  except  one,  and  that  is  PURITY." 

•But  there  are  two  kinds  of  mind:  one  flies,  the  other  walks;  one  looks  up, 
the  other  on ;  one  says,  ' '  the  best  shall  be, ' '  the  other  says,  ' '  the  possible  shall 
be  "  ;  one  is  called  ' '  an  idealist, ' '  the  other  ' '  a  practical  character. ' '  These 
two  join  hands  in  reform  and  philanthropic  work,  because  they  both  seek  the 
Godward  side  of  things,  they  both  purpose  to  leave  the  world  better  than  they 
found  it  by  the  sum  total  of  that  increment  of  power  that  they  by  nature  or  by 
culture  have  obtained;  but  while  they  have  a  thousandfold  more  in  common  than 
the  apathetic,  the  sensual,  the  base,  there  is  just  difference  enough  in  their  key- 
note to  make  discord  possible.  Out  of  this  grow  some  of  the  greatest  difficul- 
ties of  philanthropy,  for  not  to  agree  in  one's  own  group  is  a  more  potent  source 
of  disintegration  than  to  be  pressed  upon  by  those  ponderous  forces  from  outside 
that  do  not  make  for  righteousness.  But  these  inevitable  internal  difficulties 
would  be  vastly  diminished  if  the  two  classes  of  minds  would  but  recognize 
their  points  of  difference,  and  treat  each  other  with  forbearance  instead  of  cudgel- 
ling with  epithets  and  laying  low  with  illustrations,  one  side  saying,  "  Alas,  for 


!84  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

those  idealists,  with  their  castles  in  the  air,"  and  the  other  crying  out,  "Alas,  for 
those  materialists,  with  their  plantigrade  step,  they  drag  our  standards  in  the 
dust. ' '  Meanwhile  the  great  gainsaying  world  drones  on  with  its  favorite  phrase, 
' '  Behold  how  these  Christians  love  one  another ' ' ;  while  the  cynic  wags  his 
worthless  head  and  shoots  forth  the  lip  of  scorn,  exclaiming,  ' '  These  women 
serve  the  Lord  like  the  very  devil."  "  By  these  means  is  the  cause  wounded  in 
the  house  of  its  friends,  but  God  loves  them  both,"  the  idealist  and  the  materialist; 
the  one  who  moves  ' '  toward  the  far-off  divine  event, ' '  and  the  other  who  plods 
on  along  the  dusty  road  doing  what  he  thinks  will  mitigate  the  present  distress. 
Whatever  anybody  else  may  think,  I  firmly  believe  that  our  beloved  comrade 
who  leads  the  happy  host  of  one  hundred  thousand  British  women,  honestly 
thought  that  her  plan  of  dealing  with  unchaste  soldiers  in  India  would  have  better 
practical  results  than  any  yet  proposed.  She  thought  that  by  subjecting  them  to 
a  medical  examination  whenever  they  were  known  to  break  the  law  of  continence, 
and  ceasing  to  classify  them  as  ' '  exemplary ' '  when  their  relations  to  women 
were  impure  (thus  making  their  chances  of  promotion  dependent  on  their  whole- 
someness  of  life  in  this  particular)  the  most  thorough  safeguards  would  be  pro- 
vided. She  believed  that  by  this  means  the  little  women  of  India,  who  sell 
themselves  for  purposes  of  shame,  would  be  less  debased  because  less  patronized, 
and  that  by  means  of  the  medical  examination,  in  their  case  to  be  conducted  by  a 
woman  physician,  and  in  the  case  of  men  to  be  as  explicit  as  in  that  of  women, 
the  best  possible  protection  that  is  practicable  as  yet  would  be  supplied. 

In  Lady  Henry  Somerset's  address  before  the  National  Executive  Committee 
of  the  British  Woman's  Temperance  Association,  July  28,  1897,  she  has  stated 
her  position  in  these  words  : 

"It  is  not  that  there  is  any  divergence  of  principle  between  us,  I  must 
steadily  maintain,  but  rather  the  outcome  of  the  theory  as  to  what  is  the  greatest 
deterrent  from  wrong,  between  myself  and  those  who  differ  from  me  on  the  Can- 
tonments Acts  in  this  Association.  If  there  is  anyone  who  would  for  a  moment 
believe  that  in  principle  I  could  have  changed  my  outlook  ;  that  I  for  one  single 
moment  would  wish  to  make  vice  easy,  or  to  encourage  a  laxness  of  morals 
among  men,  or  a  loose  idea  as  to  how  sin  is  to  be  met  in  our  army  —  let  me  at 
once  state  that  they  are  absolutely  mistaken.  Nothing  can  or  ought  ever  to  be 
attempted  or  done  that  should  in  the  slightest  degree  give  rise  to  the  idea  that 
sin  is  not  grievous,  entailing  seiious  and  lamentable  consequences,  and  that  all  in 
authority  are  not  bound  to  condemn  it;  that  to  deter  from  evil  is  the  fundamental 
principle  on  which  all  law  is  based.  There  is  no  sin  of  any  kind  that  is  a  neces- 
sity. We  are  living  in  a  world  full  of  evil,  the  result,  probably,  of  the  long  trend 
of  ideas  that  has  gone  before;  the  shaping  of  communities  in  past  times;  and  the 
cultivation  of  thought.  But  not  one  of  these  reasons  can  stay  us  for  one  moment 
in  our  unalterable  determination  to  do  away  with  evil  and  to  uphold  good.  I  am 


FOUNDER   OF   WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  185 

not  going  to  argue  here  as  to  the  merits  or  non-merits  of  my  plan,  which  is  a 
question  for  experts,  but  I  do  insist  that  no  one  dare  say  it  is  immoral.  It  may 
be  mistaken;  it  may  be  misconceived,  but  when  Mrs.  Butler,  in  her  pamphlet, 
says  '  truth  before  everything, '  she  has  hit  the  real  nail  on  the  head  while  trying 
to  make  an  argument  against  me." 

Speaking  of  my  proposal  she  says: 

' '  I  have  seen  something  of  the  worst  side  of  humanity.  I  have  encountered 
men  who  were  more  demons  than  men.  I  have  been  forced  to  fathom  the  depths 
of  human  corruption;  yet,  I  thank  God,  my  faith  is  as  strong  as  ever  in  the 
recoverability  of  the  most  abject  of  human  beings,  and  in  the  spark  of  divine 
light  which  lingers  even  in  those  who  are  generally  believed  to  be  hopeless.  I 
refuse  to  believe  that  our  poor  young  soldiers  in  India,  at  the  age  of  from  eighteen 
to  twenty-five,  have  reached  such  a  depth  of  degradation  as  to  accept  or  to  cease 
to  revolt  against  such  rules  as  the  above,  and  that  it  will  ever  be  possible  to  drill 
them  in  debauchery  so  perfectly  as  to  induce  them  to  practice  it  with  the  order 
and  precision  with  which  they  might  attend  a  concert  or  a  lecture,  having  their 
names  entered,  with  the  date,  the  circumstances,  the  number  of  the  room  visited, 
etc.  None  but  the  coarsest,  the  most  stupidly  animal  and  shameless  of  the  men 
would  consent  to  perform  their  acts  of  impurity  thus  openly,  under  the  eyes  of 
the  military  police  and  the  whole  camp. ' ' 

It  is  precisely  because  it  would  have  the  effect  of  being  considered  degrad- 
ing that  it  would  be  in  the  end  eminently  successful  in  proving  the  strongest 
deterrent  from  vice  that  you  can  find. 

What  Lady  Henry  wanted  was  a  quarantine  system,  and  not  a  license  sys- 
tem, and  she  wished  to  label  those  men  who  called  themselves  incapable  of  conti- 
nence, and  to  have  the  facts  concerning  their  condition  included  in  the  papers 
which  are  made  the  basis  of  promotion,  and  which  now  bear  the  word  ' '  exem- 
plary," irrespective  of  those  degrading  relations  which  a  proportion  of  them 
sustain  to  the  servile  women  of  India,  who  sell  themselves  for  a  price. 

Now,  while  we  White  Ribboners  will  not  give  an  atom  of  our  influence  in 
favor  of  any  high-license  movement,  or  in  favor  of  the  use  of  beer  instead  of  the 
fiery  drinks,  it  remains  true  that  all  these  tokens  show  that  men  are  obliged  to 
think  about  temperance  and  are  trying  to  climb  up  some  other  way,  proving  that 
there  is  today  a  very  different  attitude  of  the  public  mind  from  that  of  half  a  cen- 
tury ago.  And  to  follow  out  the  analogy,  who  believes  that  twenty-five  years  ago 
it  would  have  been  soberly  considered  by  military  men  to  examine  the  men  as  well 
as  the  women  who  frequent  houses  of  shame  ?  From  our  point  of  view  it  is  a 
lower  plane,  but  from  the  point  of  view  of  military  men  it  is  a  higher  plane,  and 
these  things  we  must  not  forget. 

The  plan  differed  from  the  C.  D.  Acts  that  disgraced  England's  legislation 
in  this,  that  it  was  not  simply  seeking  to  supply  a  demand  and  to  make  sin  more 


1 86  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

safe  for  impure  men,  but  was  meant  to  hold  them  back  by  motives  of  shame  and 
the  desire  of  promotion,  from  the  illicit  indulgence  of  propensities  intensified  by 
the  tropical  climate  and  lowered  moral  tone  of  their  new  environment.  But  to 
this  view  White  Ribbon  women  oppose  two  considerations  which  they  deem  vital. 
First,  they  hold  the  opinion,  universally  so  far  as  I  have  learned,  that  the  plan  I 
have  outlined  will  never  be  pursued  by  military  men.  They  could  not  if  they 
would  subject  the  soldiers  to  the  examination  proposed,  and  their  standards, 
largely  derived  from  military  doctors,  a  majority  of  whom  hold  that  indulgence, 
whether  illicit  or  otherwise,  is  necessary  to  young  men,  are  diametrically  opposed 
to  the  enforcement  of  any  such  provision  as  our  comrade  has  set  forth.  Sec- 
ondly, White  Ribbon  women  are  idealists;  they  work  for  what  they  believe  to  be 
the  holy,  unchangeable  right;  their  vocabulary  has  no  place  for  the  word  "  regu- 
lation " ;  it  has  once  and  forever  been  replaced  by  the  word  ' '  abolition. ' '  What 
little  strength  they  have  is  being  used  to  hold  up  God's  standards,  to  preach  His 
gospel  for  this  evil  time.  They  believe  that  a  man's  ability  to  control  himself  is 
chiefly  based  on  the  mental  attitude  that  he  holds  toward  his  physical  nature;  they 
believe  that,  like  St.  Paul,  he  must  ' '  keep  his  body  under, ' '  and  that  it  is  the 
business  of  women  in  gentle  and  reasonable  ways  evermore  to  put  before  him  the 
vision  of  the  heights.  We  hold  that  there  is  but  one  standard  of  purity  for  men 
and  women,  and  that  they  are  equally  capable  of  living  up  to  it;  we  steadfastly 
believe  that  all  law  should  set  forth  the  ideal,  that  it  should  beckon  men  to  the 
summit  rather  than  provide  for  them,  under  no  matter  what  restricions,  those 
indulgences  in  alcoholic  liquors,  opium  and  social  vice  whereby  they  live  in  the 
dark  valleys  of  sin.  Our  beloved  comrade  has  hoped  to  reach  the  same  result 
by  regulation  that  we  propose  to  attain  by  prohibition  or  not  at  all.  But  while 
we  differ  so  completely  as  to  methods,  we  repudiate  any  personal  attack  upon  or 
severity  of  language  toward  the  woman,  who,  at  the  risk  of  personal  violence, 
publicly  repudiated  the  candidacy  of  an  impure  politician  for  parliament  and 
dared  the  fierce  criticism  of  the  press  in  her  attack  on  the  living  pictures  of  the 
London  music  halls;  who  forwarded  by  every  means  in  her  power  the  heroic 
work  of  Doctor  Bushnell  and  Mrs.  Andrew;  who  has  personally  reformed  more 
unfortunate  women  and  girls  than  any  one  of  us;  whose  zeal  has  been  that  of  a 
flaming  herald,  whose  devotion  is  a  household  word  among  White  Ribboners, 
and  whose  untiring  work  in  these  long  years,  carried  forward  under  conditions 
more  difficult  than  any  that  have  hedged  up  the  path  of  any  reformer  whom  I 
have  ever  known,  have  bound  her  to  our  hearts  with  cords  that  never  can  be 
broken.  We  admire  and  trust  and  love  her;  we  believe  that  when  she  sees  that 
her  plan  is  not  adopted  in  the  Indian  army,  she  (who  has  been  silent  under  many 
rebukes)  will  frankly  admit  that  although  she  put  it  forward  because  she  thought 
it  "  practical,"  it  partook  far  too  much  in  its  severity  of  the  "  impracticability  " 
attributed  to  our  own  ideas,  and  she  will  stand  with  us,  shoulder  to  shoulder, 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C  T.  U.  187 

heart  to  heart,  as  she  has  done  so  long  and  bravely.     God  bless  and  comfort  her 
in  these  hours  of  anxiety  and  pain  —  our  loyal  sister,  Lady  Henry  Somerset 

TOTAL   ABSTINENCE. 

Whoever  in  this  audience,  or  city,  or  nation  or  world,  has  within  the  last 
hour  had  the  greatest  number  of  serene  and  helpful  thoughts  is  the  person  who 
best  illustrates  the  purpose  of  God  in  his  creation,  and  it  is  because  the  use  of 
intoxicants  diminishes  the  power  of  the  user  to  think  with  beneficent  serenity, 
that  we  are  here  assembled. 

The  novelist  and  poet  make  much  of  wine,  but  the  ' '  Cup  of  cold  water ' '  has 
been  hallowed  by  the  words  of  lips  divine  and  sacrificed  by  David  from  a  senti- 
ment of  loyalty  to  his  brave  comrades;  by  Alexander  when  he  declined  to  drink 
lest  his  soldiers  seeing  him  would  grow  more  thirsty;  by  Randolph  of  Hapsburg, 
who  thrust  the  cup  of  blessing  from  his  parched  lips,  saying,  ' '  I  thirst  not  for 
myself,  but  for  my  whole  army, ' '  and  by  Sir  Philip  Sydney  who  gave  the  cup  for 
which  he  longed  to  a  poor  soldier  with  the  immortal  words,  ' '  Thy  need  is  yet 
greater  than  mine." 

Cold  water  wins  its  widening  way,  without  haste,  without  rest.  The  wine- 
less  dinner  table  is  becoming  cosmopolitan. 

Cold  water  was  declared  to  be  "  the  best  beverage  ever  brewed ' '  by  Abraham 
Lincoln  when  he  offered  it  to  the  committee  of  leaders  who  brought  him  news  of 
his  nomination  to  the  presidency  ;  it  was  apotheosized  by  John  B.  Gough  in  his 
most  famous  passage  listened  to  by  eight  millions  of  delighted  men  and  women 
during  the  great  advocate' s  ' '  Forty  Years'  Fight  with  the  Drink  Demon  " ;  its 
pledge  was  given  to  millions  more  by  gentle  Father  Mathew,  and  the  little  folk 
are  singing  our  Anna  Gordon's  chorus  throughout  Christendom  — 

"We  are  all  cold  water  children, 
Won't  that  help  the  cause  along?" 

This  is  our  position  :  That  the  crown  of  creation,  so  far  as  we  know,  is  the 
domelike  head  carried  on  human  shoulders  ;  that  this  is  the  universe  in  miniature, 
and  the  nearest  to  God  of  anything  of  which  we  are  aware  ;  that  forth  from  it  has 
come  all  that  makes  the  earth  different  from  a  den  of  beasts  ;  that  water  is  the 
brain's  natural  restorer  and  lubricant,  and  that  any  material  sold  or  used  which 
produces  its  deterioration  beyond  the  degree  that  any  other  material  does  or  can, 
shall  not  be  made  or  sold  under  the  guarantees  and  safeguards  of  the  State. 

The  great  battle  is  now  against  moderate  drinking  ;  drunkenness  is  outlawed 
save  among  the  human  sediment  of  parlor  and  purlieus.  But  the  man  who  is  on 
the  way  to  this  same  degradation,  as  science  steadily  holds,  will  not  believe  it, 
this  being  the  most  painful  part  of  his  hallucination. 

In  this  great  fight  for  a  clear  brain  some  of  our  good  friends  counsel  us  to 
give  up  the  word  temperance,  but  it  is  a  word  too  grand  and  far-reaching  to  be 


i88  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

sacrificed.  Let  us  all  diligently  teach  that  temperance  is  the  moderate  use  of  all 
things  harmless,  and  total  abstinence  from  all  things  harmful.  Some  persons 
have  the  sanguine  temperament,  others  the  bilious,  others  the  lymphatic,  others 
the  nervous,  but  now  and  then  we  come  upon  a  favored  one  who  so  combines  all 
these  that  it  may  be  said  of  him,  he  has  the  tempered  temperament ;  he  is  made 
up  of  every  creature's  best.  So  it  is  with  the  temperance  reform  —  all  the  best 
things  of  life  are  in  it ;  no  other  word  so  fully  represents  that  self-control  which 
makes  man  great ;  none  so  combines  conserving  powers  with  progressive  possi- 
bilities. A  temperance  man  looks  upon  his  body  as  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  a  temperance  man  is  chaste,  teetotal,  anti-tobacco,  anti-gambling  ;  he  is 
for  home  protection,  the  emancipation  of  women,  the  lifting  of  labor  to  every 
opportunity  that  life  can  yield  ;  his  eye  is  clear,  his  hand  untrembling,  and  when 
you  meet  him  you  have  met  one  of  whom  the  Arabs  would  say  in  their  beautiful 
phrase,  "  He  is  a.  brother  of  girls." 

The  supreme  duty  of  the  hour  is  to  convince  the  moderate  drinker  that  he  is 
doing  himself  harm.  If  only  this  belief  were  general,  men  would  soon  become  a 
law  unto  themselves,  to  such  a  degree  that  statutory  enactments  would  be  but  the 
outward  expression  of  an  inward  grace.  Upon  the  sullen  fortress  of  moderate 
drinking  the  artillery  of  the  temperance  reform  must  concentrate  in  future  years. 
It  has  been  an  incalculable  gain  to  make  drunkenness  a  disgrace  instead  of  an 
amiable  peculiarity  as  it  was  a  hundred  years  ago,  or  a  pardonable  peccadillo  as  it 
was  in  the  memory  of  the  oldest  inhabitant,  or  a  necessary  evil  as  it  was  a  gener- 
ation back.  The  forces  that  have  worked  to  this  end  are  precisely  the  same  that 
must  now  be  directed  against  so-called  ' '  moderation. ' '  We  must  stoutly  main- 
tain the  position  that  there  is  no  moderation  in  the  use  of  what  is  harmful. 
Happily,  in  taking  this  position  we  have  ' '  great  allies, ' '  of  which  the  greatest  is 
the  dictum  of  the  modern  sciences.  These  declarations  of  standard  authorities 
are  now  being  taught  to  the  children  in  the  public  schools,  not  only  of  America, 
but  to  a  great  extent  throughout  the  English-speaking  world  ;  and  their  intro- 
duction is  being  urged  in  France,  and  has  to  some  extent  penetrated  Japan.  It 
is  in  the  nature  of  poetic  justice  that  Germany,  the  greatest  beer-drinking  country 
in  the  world,  should  have  furnished  the  scholars  who  are  perhaps  doing  most  to 
undermine  the  fallacy  that  intoxicating  liquors  (i.  e. ,  poisonous  liquors)  taken 
"  in  moderation,"  are  either  harmless  or  helpful  in  the  physical  economy  of  life. 

"TOO  MUCH." 

There  is  hardly  a  form  of  expression  more  frequent  than,  ' '  He  took  too 
much. ' '  We  hear  it  even  from  the  lips  of  the  temperance  mother  who  believes 
that  any  at  all  is  too  much  when  it  is  a  question  of  using  intoxicating  liquors  as  a 
drink.  When  a  drunken  Mexican  recently  assaulted  President  Diaz  ' '  with  intent 
to  kill,"  our  papers  with  one  accord  declared  that  the  would-be  murderer  had 


FOUNDER   OF   WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  189 

had  "too  much  pulque."  But  no  person  of  intelligence  would  touch  this 
national  poisoned  drink  that  has  so  long  degraded  the  Mexican  people,  and  no 
intelligent  patriot  and  Christian  who  has  studied  the  causes  of  misery  in  our  own 
favored  land,  would  fail  to  regard  any  alcoholic  liquor  as  ' '  too  much ' '  if  the 
reasons  for  so  doing  were  presented  to  him  with  adequate  considerateness  and 
wisdom. 

The  effects  of  alcohol  are  thus  treated  of  by  Prof.  C.  F.  Hodge,  of  Clark  Uni- 
versity, Worcester,  Massachusetts,  writing  in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly.  He 
says :  ' '  Helmholtz  has  said,  in  describing  his  methods  of  work,  that  slight  indul- 
gence in  alcoholic  drinks  dispelled  instantly  his  best  ideas.  Professor  Gaule  once 
told  the  writer  that,  as  an  experiment,  during  the  strain  of  his  '  Staatsexamen, ' 
he  suddenly  stopped  his  wine  and  beer,  and  was  surprised  to  find  how  much  bet- 
ter he  could  work.  An  eminent  professor  in  Leipsic  has  stated  that  the  German 
students  could  do  '  twice  the  amount  of  work '  if  they  would  let  beer  alone. 
Dr.  August  Smith  has  found  that  moderate  non-intoxicant  doses  of  alcohol  (forty 
to  eighty  cubic  centimeters  daily)  lowered  psychic  ability  to  memorize  as  much  as 
seventy  per  cent. ' ' 

Rev.  Dr.  Stuckenburg,  whose  philosophical  books  are  well  known  to  the 
intelligent,  makes  a  statement  that  I  wish  might  be  copied  out  by  our  press 
superintendents.  It  is  as  follows:  "For  the  encouragement  of  temperance 
workers  there  comes  from  German  and  other  continental  professors  of  physiology, 
physicians,  directors  of  prisons  and  insane  asylums  —  the  very  ones  formerly 
thought  to  advocate  moderate  drinking  —  a  scientific  literature  of  unsurpassed 
excellence  in  favor  of  total  abstinence.  It  is  not  less  convincing  because  based 
so  exclusively  on  thoroughly  scientific  investigations  of  physiological  laws. 
These  scientists  demand  total  abstinence  in  order  that  the  fearful  devastations 
which  are  destroying  the  nation  may  be  checked. 

Buchner,  the  great  authority  on  bees,  declares  that  robbery  and  murder 
become  their  trade  if  brandy  is  mixed  with  the  honey  on  which  the  larvae  feed. 
The  naturalist  says  it  makes  them  act  just  as  men  do  under  similar  conditions. 

When  Victoria  was  crowned  Queen  of  England,  over  20,000  gallons  of  wine 
were  consumed  by  the  people  of  London.  Now,  at  the  celebration  of  the  sixtieth 
year  of  her  reign,  the  committee  having  the  arrangements  in  charge  announces 
that  it  has  ' '  courteously  declined  to  accept  five  pipes  of  port  wine  offered  by  wine 
merchants. ' ' 

The  President  of  the  United  States  does  not  have  wine  at  his  table,  nor  serve 
it  at  his  Cabinet  dinners.  The  Governor  of  New  York  does  not  serve  liquor  of 
any  kind  to  guests  in  the  executive  mansion  at  Albany.  The  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  primate  of  the  English  State  Church,  does  not  offer  wine  at  Lambeth 
Palace. 

Society  daily  becomes  more  ciearly  founded  on  the  principle  of  the  greatest 


190  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

number's  greatest  good.  We  enforce  sanitary  arrangements,  enter  people's 
houses  and  tell  them  what  they  may  and  may  not  do ;  but  to  banish  intoxicating 
drinks  is  a  sanitary  measure,  the  most  important  of  which  we  can  conceive. 
The  great  steamship  companies  do  not  permit  the  officers  on  their  lines  to  drink, 
because  the  smallest  amount  might  deflect  the  judgment  at  a  critical  point  and 
endanger  or  destroy  the  lives  of  passengers,  and,  what  means  more  to  the  ship- 
owners, sink  the  millions  of  dollars  they  have  invested  in  this  floating  palace. 
The  railroad  company  forbids  the  men  who  handle  its  trains  to  use  intoxicants  or 
to  gamble,  because  either  of  these  vices  renders  them  less  clear-headed  for  their 
work.  It  is  a  matter  of  dollars  and  cents  with  the  capitalist.  But  what  shall  we 
say  of  society  itself,  for  the  sake  of  which  all  other  things  exist  ?  What  shall  we 
say  of  that  great  company  of  men,  women  and  children  who  are  too  wise  to  use 
strong  drink,  but  who  are  at  the  mercy  of  those  who  do  ?  We  forbid  the  cyclist 
to  invade  the  sidewalk  because  collisions  might  occur,  and  sooner  than  our 
opponents  think  we  shall  forbid  the  man  with  the  jug  to  walk  with  us  the 
crowded  thoroughfares  of  life.  There  will  then  be  no  more  talk  of  ' '  personal 
liberty,"  but  the  watch- cry  will  be  personal  protection,  home  protection,  national 
protection  from  the  worm  of  the  still  and  the  sodden  beverage  brewed  from 
golden  grain  and  fragrant  hops  by  the  prostitution  of  honest  labor  and  expert 
skill. 

At  the  last  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  only  one  Presby- 
tery of  the  United  States  reported  a  majority  of  its  churches  as  still  using 
fermented  wine  at  the  sacramental  table. 

This  simple  statement  seems  natural  enough,  but  what  an  avalanche  of 
work  it  indicates  to  those  behind  the  scenes.  Let  me  give  a  single  illustration: 
One  Sunday  morning  the  President  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  in  a  leading  Western 
State  went  to  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  which  she  was  among  the  most  helpful 
members,  and  distributed  in  the  pews,  before  anybody  had  arrived,  a  leaflet  con- 
taining keen  arguments  and  affectionate  persuasions  against  the  use  of  alcoholic 
wine  at  the  Communion,  all  of  these  having  been  written  by  scholarly  clergymen 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

If  these  points  had  been  made  by  our  White  Ribbon  women  they  might 
have  stirred  up  strife,  but  even  the  conservative  could  not  object  to  having  their 
pure  minds  stirred  up  by  leaders  of  their  own  flock. 

This  quiet  work  carried  on  for  more  than  twenty  years  as  a  part  of  the 
varied  and  vigorous  propaganda  conducted  by  temperance  pastors  and  workers 
within  and  without  the  Church  has  won  the  day.  But  we  can  only  reap  where 
we  have  sown. 

PROHIBITION. 

Public  sentiment  is,  in  man's  mental  world,  what  steam  and  electricity  are  in 
the  world  of  things  mechanical.  We  must  not  only  know  why  the  times  are  out 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C  T.  U.  191 

of  joint,  and  what  will  put  them  where  they  ought  to  be,  but  we  must  harness 
the  forces  that  will  do  it  to  the  car  of  reform.  In  short,  we  must  ' '  hitch  our 
wagon  to  a  star."  When  coal  in  the  mine  but  not  in  the  grate  will  warm  you  ; 
when  flour  in  the  barrel  but  not  in  the  loaf  will  feed  you  ;  when  wool  on  a 
sheep's  back  but  not  woven  or  spun  will  clothe  you,  then  the  public  sentiment 
lying  dormant  in  every  sane  mind  but  not  aroused,  condensed  and  brought  to 
bear  through  the  electric  battery  of  the  ballot  box,  will  put  the  liquor  traffic 
under  ban  of  law. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  right  to  prohibit  the  sale  of  intoxicating 
liquors  for  drinking  purposes  will,  in  the  future,  be  largely  based  on  the  harm 
they  bring  to  the  people  who  never  drink  them.  For  the  liquor  traffic  is  an 
assault  upon  the  non-drinker.  This  claim,  always  virtually  put  forth  by  temper- 
ance people,  needs  the  emphasis  of  constant  reiteration,  and  I  beg  our  superin- 
tendents of  literature  to  take  note  of  it  and  show  it  forth  in  brief  and  pungent 
paragraphs.  For  even  yet  it  is  not  generally  known  that  we  hold  that  it  is  the 
harm  that  drinking  does  to  the  man  who  does  not  drink  which  gives  the  non- 
drinker  the  right  to  prevent  the  drinker  from  doing  him  that  harm.  Prohibition 
is  self-protection,  and  is  based  on  the  elementary  rights  of  civilized  man. 

The  State  control  of  the  liquor  traffic  is  now  the  favorite  method  of  those 
who  would  like  to  see  the  political  power  of  the  saloon  broken,  but  are  not  ready 
for  Prohibition.  This  constitutes  a  large  and  intelligent  group  of  good  men  who 
are  as  much  convinced  from  their  point  of  view  as  we  are  from  ours,  and  it  is  but 
reasonable  to  admit  that  State  control,  as  conducted  in  Norway,  with  power 
given  to  the  people  to  prohibit  the  trade  in  any  town  or  city  that  can  muster  the 
necessary  majority  and  with  the  votes  of  women  included  in  that  electorate,  has 
thus  far  worked  wonderfully  well,  because,  in  most  instances  when  the  time 
arrived  for  the  voting,  it  resulted  in  local  Prohibition.  If  such  a  law  prevailed 
today  throughout  the  United  States,  except  in  those  happy  Commonwealths 
already  under  Prohibition,  I  am  confident  it  would  be  a  blow  that  the  liquor 
traffic  would  not  long  survive.  Men  and  women  in  Norway  do  not  vote  until  they 
are  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  if  all  our  population  who  have  reached  that 
figure  could  vote  tomorrow  on  the  question,  I  am  confident  there  is  enough  public 
sentiment  against  the  Curse  to  vote  it  out;  but  because  we  believe  that  it  is  our 
work  to  educate  toward  Prohibition  and  that  alone,  whether  it  be  prohibition  of 
the  liquor  traffic,  the  gambling  house  or  the  strange  woman's  habitation,  we  can 
never  favor  any  of  these  milder  movements,  though  we  can  think  and  speak  with 
the  highest  esteem  and  good  will  of  those  earnest-hearted  men  who  look  upon  us 
as  fanatics,  and  hope  the  day  will  come  when  we  shall  ' '  cease  to  be  dreamers  and 
wake  up  to  do  practical  work. ' ' 

The  bill  introduced  by  Hon.  Elijah  A.  Morse,  of  Massachusetts,  Chairman 
of  the  House  Committee  on  the  Alcoholic  Liquor  Traffic,  prohibiting  the  sale  of 


i92  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

intoxicating  liquors  in  the  Capitol  in  Washington,  was  passed  by  the  House  with 
a  vote  of  104  to  7,  but  the  United  States  Senate,  which  has  made  a  painfully  bad 
record  in  the  past  year,  prevented  the  bill  from  coming  to  a  vote,  that  typical 
Democratic  senator,  David  B.  Hill,  talking  against  temperance  in  the  interest  of 
the  liquor  dealers  until  the  opportunity  was  lost. 

The  House  of  Commons  in  Canada  is  in  a  similar  plight,  having  closed  the 
bar  in  their  end  of  the  parliamentary  buildings,  but  the  bar  in  the  Senate  end 
remains  open.  Meanwhile  Sir  Wilfrid  Lawson  has  vainly  tried  to  banish  intox- 
icants from  the  British  House  of  Commons,  and  his  merciless  raillery  seems  to 
have  driven  the  Government  to  "an  access  of  nerves, ' '  which  nothing  brings  so 
readily  upon  them  as  a  proposal  to  interfere  with  the  presence  of  their  favorite 
tipple  at  all  times  and  in  all  places. 

The  general  aim  of  all  good  people  ought  to  be  to  leave  the  world  better  for 
their  progeny  than  their  progenitors  left  it  for  them.  The  plebiscite  soon  to  be 
placed  before  our  Canadian  comrades  puts  them  in  the  strategic  storm  center  of 
the  temperance  movement,  and  we  are  persuaded  that  the  manhood  of  its  homes 
will  give  a  good  account  of  themselves  upon  that  day  of  days,  as  we  know  the 
women  will.  If  only  the  mothers  could  drop  in  a  ballot  the  majority  would  be 
already  sure.  I  sometimes  ask  myself,  ' '  Could  unwisdom  farther  go  than  to  dis- 
franchise the  class  who,  by  glorious  discipline  and  blessed  sorrow,  are  most 
naturally  inclined  to  Home  Protection  and  saloon  destruction  ? ' ' 

It  is  well  known  that  Lord  Salisbury  is  the  merciless  enemy  of  temperance 
reform,  and  has  the  bad  preeminence  'of  having  stated  officially  that  he  will  do 
nothing  for  this  cause,  and  having  in  his  usual  relentless  manner,  reintroduced 
the  C.  D.  Acts  in  India  without  requiring  the  examination  of  men  as  one  penalty, 
and  as  another  making  their  promotion  dependent  upon  the  decency  of  their  per- 
sonal relations  with  women.  But  while  we  grievously  lament  these  acts  of  retro- 
gression, we  get  a  crumb  of  comfort  out  of  the  news  from  the  old  home  country 
that  the  advance  in  temperance  sentiment  is  shown  by  the  general  refusal  of 
magistrates  to  grant  new  licenses  at  the  recent  ' '  Brewster  Sessions. ' ' 

We  have  got  our  politics  down  to  so  fine  a  point  ' '  over  the  line, ' '  that  with- 
out the  knowledge  of  either  Senate  or  House,  the  Committee  of  Conference  on 
the  tariff  can  ' '  get  in ' '  the  famous  ten  per  cent  ' '  discriminating  clause. ' ' 
Heaven  grant  that  some  such  sleight-of-hand  be  not  practiced  upon  you  in  the 
anticipated  plebiscite. 

A  Spanish  wit  was  explaining  to  an  English  gentleman  in  Madrid  the  differ- 
ence between  the  two  great  political  parties  of  that  country.  He  said  :  ' '  The 
Liberals  are  assassins  and  great  robbers  ;  the  Conservatives  are  robbers  and  great 
assassins. ' 

So  far  as  we  can  discover,  this  is  the  definition  of  the  two  great  political 
parties  of  our  own,  and  indeed  of  every  country,  in  the  present  turbulent  and 


LADY  HENRY  SOMERSET— 1890. 


"  SAINT  COURAGEOUS,"  HER  DAUGHTER  FRANCES 
AND  ANNA  A.  GORDON, 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C  T.  U.  193 

seething  condition  of  public  affairs.  But  I  believe  that  Richard  Cobden's  rule, 
which  Gladstone  has  followed  all  his  life,  is  the  only  one  worthy  of  us,  namely, 
' '  Never  assume  that  the  motives  of  the  man  who  is  opposed  to  you  in  policy  or 
argument  are  one  whit  less  pure  and  disinterested  than  your  own. ' '  For  nobody 
is  wholly  good  and  nobody  is  wholly  bad.  But  alas,  it  is  our  custom  to  consider 
that  wisdom  will  die  with  us,  and  that  truthfulness  first  had  its  being  when  we 
were  born ;  while  the  facts  are,  speaking  broadly,  that  being  subject  to  a  certain 
pressure  of  education,  certain  great  masses  of  men  look  upon  public  matters  in 
one  way,  and  other  great  masses  look  upon  them  in  another,  and  nothing  short 
of  that  universal  argumentation  which  politics  furnishes  will  enable  both  groups 
to  reach  at  last  an  equilibrium  of  thought  by  leavening  the  entire  lump  with  the 
two  different  kinds  of  education,  so  that  one  view  shall  modify  the  other. 

CHRISTIAN   CITIZENSHIP. 

We  have  lost  this  year  one  of  the  most  God-smitten  spirits  that  has  come  to 
the  planet  in  our  country,  Prof.  Henry  Drummond,  the  intellectual  mediator 
between  science  and  religion,  between  theory  and  practice.  No  utterance  that  I 
have  seen  so  completely  condenses  the  significance  of  that  great  movement 
toward  Christian  citizenship  in  the  midst  of  which  we  are,  as  the  following  from 
his  pen,  that  seemed  dipped  in  light.  It  is  a  bugle  blast  for  every  man  who  has 
a  vote,  and  every  woman.  To  take  life  in  the  practical  way  which  our  great 
brother,  whom  we  have  lost  so  lately,  has  put  it  before  us,  is  indeed  to  be  a  true 
disciple  of  Him  who  went  about  doing  good  : 

"To  move  among  the  people  on  the  common  street;  to  meet  them  in  the 
market-place  on  equal  terms;  to  live  among  them,  not  as  saint  or  monk,  but  as 
a  brother  man  with  brother  men;  to  serve  God,  not  with  form  or  ritual,  but  in 
the  free  impulse  of  a  soul ;  to  bear  the  burden  of  society  and  relieve  its  needs ;  to 
carry  on  its  multitudinous  activities  of  the  city  —  social,  commercial,  political, 
philanthropic  :  this  is  the  religion  of  the  Son  of  Man  and  the  only  fitness  for 

Heaven  which  has  much  reality  in  it Traveler  to  God's  last  city, 

be  thankful  that  you  are  alive.  Be  thankful  for  the  city  at  your  doors  and  for  the 
chance  to  build  its  walls  a  little  higher  before  you  go.  Pray  for  yet  a  little  while 
to  redeem  the  wasted  years.  And  week  by  week,  as  you  go  forth  from  worship, 
and  day  by  day,  as  you  awake  to  face  this  great  and  needy  world,  learn  to  '  seek 
a  city '  here,  and  in  the  service  of  its  neediest  citizen  to  find  a  Heaven. ' ' 

WOMEN   AT   FUNERALS. 

I  have  been  much  pleased  with  the  attention  given  to  an  article  in  the  Union 
Signal  on  this  subject,  the  gist  of  which  was  that  under  the  head  of  the  Flower 
Mission  might  be  included  an  effort  to  increase  the  participation  of  women  in  the 
exercises  pertaining  to  funeral  rites.  The  W.  C.  T.  U.  has  already  done  more  to 
bring  this  about  than  any  other  influence.  In  almost  all  the  funerals  of  our  pro- 
13 


i94  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

moted  comrades  their  associates  have  been  honorary  bearers,  have  walked  in  the 
procession,  occupied  seats  together  in  the  church,  and  had  some  part  in  the  exer- 
cises at  the  grave.  What  could  be  more  appropriate  than  that  she  who  sits 
beside  the  cradle  should  follow  those  to  whom  she  gave  birth  and  being  even  to 
the  cradle  of  their  last  repose  ?  With  this  effort  at  a  change  in  the  conducting  of 
funerals,  whereby  they  shall  become  less  conventional,  would  naturally  go  sug- 
gestions to  make  the  home  more  bright  and  cheery  in  these  days  when  the  loved 
form  is  lying  there  after  the  soul's  release.  The  white  ribbon  rather  than  the 
black  as  an  emblem  telling  of  the  event  to  passer-by,  the  opening  rather  than  the 
closing  of  blinds,  the  lighting  up  of  the  home  at  night,  the  moderate  use  of  flowers 
as  the  sweetest  tokens  of  affection,  the  solemn  entreaty  to  good  people  not  to 
dress  in  black  when  they  believe  their  friends  have  entered  into  eternal  radiance — 
all  these  and  many  more  helps  toward  brightening  those  days  usually  so  dark  and 
dreary  would  be  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  our  work  and  might  help  to  bring 
about  the  needed  reform. 

Nearly  all  these  tokens  were  apparent  at  the  recent  funeral  of  Neal  Dow,  a 
fact  that  will  encourage  many  others  to  adopt  less  lugubrious  methods,  let  us 
hope. 

IN    MEMORIAM. 

"WHILE  WE  MAY." 

The  hands  are  such  dear  hands; 

They  are  so  full ;  they  turn  at  our  demands 

So  often ;  they  reach  out, 

With  trifles  scarcely  thought  about, 
So  many  times ;  they  do 
So  many  things  for  me,  for  you  — 

If  their  fond  wills  mistake, 

We  may  well  bend,  not  break. 

They  are  such  fond,  frail  lips 

That  speak  to  us.     Pray,  if  love  strips 
Them  of  discretion  many  times, 
Or  if  they  speak  too  slow  or  quick,  such  crimes 

We  may  pass  by ;  for  we  may  see 

Days  not  far  off  when  those  small  words  may  be 

Held  not  as  slow,  or  quick,  or  out  of  place,  but  dear 
Because  the  lips  that  spoke  are  no  more  here. 

They  are  such  dear,  familiar  feet  that  go 

Along  the  path  with  ours  —  feet  fast  or  slow, 
And  trying  to  keep  pace  —  if  they  mistake 
Or  tread  upon  some  flower  that  we  would  take 

Upon  our  breast,  or  bruise  some  reed, 

Or  crush  poor  Hope  until  it  bleed, 


FOUNDER    OF    WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  195 

We  may  be  mute, 

Not  turning  quickly  to  impute 
Grave  fault ;  for  they  and  we 
Have  such  a  little  way  to  go  —  can  be 

Together  such  a  little  while  along  the  way, 

We  will  be  patient  while  we  may. 

So  many  little  faults  we  find. 
We  see  them ;  for  not  blind 

Is  love.    We  see  them ;  but  if  you  and  I 

Perhaps  remember  them  some  by  and  by, 
They  will  not  be 
Faults  then  — grave  faults  —  to  you  and  me, 

But  just  odd  ways  —  mistakes,  or  even  less  — 

Remembrances  to  bless. 
Days  change  so  many  things — yes,  hours ; 
We  see  so  differently  in  suns  and  showers. 

Mistaken  words  tonight 

May  be  so  cherished  by  tomorrow's  light. 
We  will  be  patient,  for  we  know 
There's  such  a  little  way  to  go. 

' '  Why,  she  talks  about  herself  as  if  she  were  dead  ! ' '  exclaimed  one  of  our 
wittiest  workers,  speaking  of  another  whose  weakness  it  is  not  ' '  to  let  her  works 
praise  her  in  the  gates,"  but  to  serve  in  the  capacity  of  her  own  trumpeter.  Well 
would  it  be  if  we  talked  of  others  as  we  would  if  they  were  dead;  but  such  is  the 
perversity  of  temperament  in  those  who  are  ' '  built  that  way, ' '  that  they  will 
speak  and  write  of  their  living  associates  in  terms  of  pitiless  severity,  when  if 
the  sacred  seal  were  on  the  foreheads  of  these  same  comrades,  no  one  would 
crown  them  with  more  fragrant  flowers.  My  sisters,  these  things  ought  not  so  to 
be,  and  I  fervently  hope  that  the  effect  of  this  memorial  service  may  be  to  soften 
every  heart  toward  every  other,  as  we  remember  that  ' '  There  is  such  a  little  way 
to  go. ' '  What  we  say  here  will  neither  make  nor  mar  the  record  of  those  whom 
we  have  lost  in  1897.  They  are  beyond  the  words  of  praise  that  all  of  us  are 
glad  to  speak,  but  we  cannot  afford  to  pass  lightly  over  the  great  fact  that  they 
are  gone,  nor  to  ignore  its  lessons.  The  scientist  tells  us  that  even  while  the  sap 
of  spring  ascends  to  the  highest  twig  on  the  tree,  it  carries  in  solution  from  the 
soil  mineral  materials  which,  being  deposited  at  the  place  where  the  young  leaf 
joins  the  wood,  will  accumulate  until  enough  sap  cannot  get  through  to  keep  the 
leaf  alive,  so  that  in  the  very  substance  of  its  nutrition  there  is  an  explicit  provi- 
sion for  its  death,  and  the  same  is  true  of  man,  as  the  deposits  from  his  food 
diminish  the  size  of  the  sluiceways  of  vitality.  The  knowledge  of  these  facts, 
and  countless  others  like  them,  reveals  death  to  us  in  a  totally  new  aspect,  and 
proves  that  it  is  provided  for  as  carefully  as  breath,  and  that  the  one  could  not 
exist  without  the  other.  It  is  replacing  in  the  common  mind  the  fancies  of  the 


I96  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

past,  and  we  face  the  future  with  a  confident  belief  that  the  mysteries  concerning 
the  genesis  and  exodus  of  man  upon  this  planet  will  be  as  clearly  understood  in 
some  future  age,  and  that  not  a  distant  one,  as  the  sources  of  the  Nile  and  the  laws 
of  electricity  are  becoming  known  to  the  thinkers  of  today.  They  have  passed 
onward,  that  is  all,  beyond  our  sight,  above  our  ken  —  the  choice  spirits  who 
were  withdrawn  from  the  procession  of  progressive  philanthrophy  in  1897. 
Time  would  fail  me  to  repeat  our  Roll  of  Honor,  to  be  read  while  we  stand  in 
reverent  silence  on  memorial  day.  But  there  are  five,  Gen.  Neal  Dow,  of 
Maine;  Sir  Benjamin  Ward  Richardson,  James  H.  Raper,  Dr.  Frederick  R. 
Lees,  of  England,  and  Letitia  Youmans,  of  Canada,  than  whom  we  had  no 
greater  ones  to  lose.  The  father  of  Prohibition,  the  greatest  scientist  who  ever 
espoused  the  cause  of  temperance,  the  chief  popular  temperance  orator  of 
England,  its  best  equipped  scholar,  and  our  Canadian  Deborah  who,  called  out 
by  the  Woman's  Crusade  of  1873,  went  forth  as  a  burning  herald  of  temperance 
reform  throughout  the  great  Dominion,  had  among  us  no  superiors.  Alas,  how 
long  it  will  take  the  younger  ones,  who  must  carry  this  holy  cause  to  its  complete- 
ness, to  win  the  public  ear  and  enshrine  themselves  in  the  people's  heart,  as  these 
have  done! 

Among  our  own  White  Ribboners  we  think  first  of  that  untiring  spirit  now 
happily  released  after  long  suffering,  Mrs.  Letitia  Youmans,  fittingly  named  the 
' '  Deborah  of  the  Dominion  " ;  a  woman  who,  at  a  greater  sacrifice  of  physical 
comfort  than  was  submitted  to  by  any  other  I  have  ever  known,  organized  the 
W.  C.  T.  U.  in  every  Province  of  Canada,  and  after  fourteen  years  of  devoted 
and  productive  toil,  endured  with  Christian  fortitude  eight  years  of  pain  before 
she  was  released  into  the  larger  life. 

Mrs.  Youmans  received  her  first  inspiration  at  the  memorable  meeting  in 
Chautauqua,  in  August,  1874,  when  Mrs.  Fowler- Willing  conducted  the  prelim- 
inary organization.  On  her  return  home  she  organized  a  local  union  in  her  own 
town  (Picton)  according  to  the  plans  outlined  at  the  Chautauqua  Assembly. 
Previous  to  this,  a  union  had  been  organized  in  Owen  Sound,  so  that  Mrs.  You- 
mans organized  the  second.  She  traversed  Canada  in  every  part,  and  the 
Republic  everywhere  but  in  the  South.  What  this  meant  to  one  of  her  age  and 
size  can  never  be  adequately  estimated  by  us.  She  had  great  power  of  speech, 
and  had  she  been  a  man,  the  halls  of  Parliament  would  have  echoed  her  voice. 
She  had  a  massive  brain  and  happy  wit.  A  woman  of  her  remarkable  abilities 
could  not  fail  to  feel  defrauded  that  by  the  laws  of  her  country  she  was  debarred 
from  taking  a  statesman's  part  in  its  affairs.  She  knew  this  would  not  be  so 
always,  and  was  outspoken  in  favor  of  the  full  and  equal  participation  of  all  men 
and  women  of  adult  age  in  the  making  and  administration  of  the  laws  by  which 
they  were  to  be  governed. 

Nor  do  we  by  any  means  forget  the  founder  of  the  British  Woman's  Tern- 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  197 

perance  Association,  Mrs.  Margaret  Parker,  of  Dundee,  who  although  for  many 
years  unable  to  engage  actively  in  our  work,  early  made  for  herself  a  record  that 
will  be  imperishable. 

GEN.  NEAL   DOW. 

Never  to  the  mansions  where  the  mighty  rest 
Since  their  foundation  came  a  nobler  guest. 

On  the  2d  of  October,  1897,  vve  l°st  the  great  character  who  for  fifty  years 
has  been  the  foremost  leader  of  the  Prohibition  forces  of  all  lands.  He  is  the 
banyan  tree  in  the  forest  of  public  opinion;  the  bright  consummate  blossom  on 
the  century  plant  of  temperance  reform ;  his  character  gleams  like  a  white  shaft 
at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century's  long  vista  — 

"  As  some  tall  cliff  that  lifts  its  awful  form 
High  from  the  vale  and  midway  cleaves  the  storm, 
Though  round  its  base  the  gathering  clouds  may  spread, 
Eternal  sunshine  settles  on  its  head." 

We  may  safely  declare  that  no  public  man  has  made  a  better  record.  As  a 
boy  he  was  studious  and  brave;  he  saved  the  life  of  a  schoolmate,  he  improved 
every  intellectual  opportunity.  As  a  youth  he  was  foremost  in  athletic  exercises, 
a  protector  of  the  weak,  and  a  terror  to  them  that  did  evil.  As  a  husband  and 
father  his  record  is  ideal;  as  a  business  man,  connected  with  large  enterprises,  he 
preserved  the  universal  confidence;  as  a  patriot  he  raised  a  regiment  and  a  bat- 
tery, and  went  to  war  at  sixty  years  of  age,  and  after  leading  his  troops  in  one 
of  the  most  heroic  battles,  in  which  he  was  twice  wounded,  he  was  taken  prisoner 
and  spent  nine  months  in  Libby  Prison. 

His  work  in  England,  where  he  invested  three  years  and  gave  two  hundred 
addresses  on  Prohibition  without  fee  or  reward,  led  to  the  founding  of  the  United 
Temperance  Alliance  with  Sir  Wilfrid  Lawson,  our  great  parliamentary  cham- 
pion, at  its  head. 

When  the  Prohibition  party  was  in  its  youth,  he  shared  the  obloquy  of  car- 
rying its  standard  in  the  presidential  campaign  of  1880.  Still  later,  he  became 
convinced  that  the  vote  of  women  was  essential  to  the  triumph  of  temperance 
reform,  and  from  that  day  he  was  the  most  honored  friend  and  brother  of  the 
W.  C.  T.  U. 

The  sorrow  of  a  wife  and  mother,  whose  natural  protector  was  lying  uncon- 
scious in  a  Portland  saloon,  led  him  in  his  sturdy  young  manhood  to  cross  its 
threshold  for  the  first  and  last  time.  The  saloonkeeper  ordered  him  out,  and 
when  Neal  Dow  asked  him  to  sell  no  more  liquor  to  the  ruined  young  husband 
and  father  who  lay  there  in  his  drunken  dream,  its  keeper,  pointing  to  his  license, 
said:  "  I  shall  sell  so  long  as  the  State  gives  me  a  legal  right,  and  the  man  has 
money  to  pay  for  his  drinks."  Then  came  the  immortal  reply — "  Heaven  help- 


i98  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

ing  me,  I  will  see  if  I  cannot  change  all  that. ' '  God  had  found  a  new  soldier, 
humanity  a  trusty  leader,  and  the  Prohibition  fight  began. 

Not  until  he  had  completed  more  than  half  of  his  ninety-fourth  year  did  he 
once  say,  ' '  I  am  weary  —  I  long  to  be  free. ' '  What  wonder  that  he,  whose 
dauntless  soul  had  drooped  in  its  darkening  prisonhouse,  longed  like  a  caged 
eagle  for  the  brightness  of  the  upper  air  ?  But  an  imperious  question  remains 
with  us,  Who  shall  grasp  the  white  banner  upheld  by  Gen.  Neal  Dow  throughout 
one  of  the  most  beneficent  lives  that  the  American  Republic  has  given  to  the 
world  ? 

I  wish  the  delegates  of  this  Convention  might  rise  as  one,  and  stand  in 
silence  for  a  moment  to  thank  God  for  that  great  leader  and  his  white  life;  for 
that  hallowed  home  where  a  pure  and  noble  wife  consoled  and  strengthened  him, 
and  to  pray  for  those  happy  children  whose  father's  name  shall  be  a  heritage 
greater  than  the  name  of  king  or  potentate. 

"  For  he  is  Fortune's  now,  and  Fame's; 
One  of  the  few,  the  immortal  names 
That  were  not  born  to  die." 

And  as  we  stand  here  together  for  a  moment,  let  our  prayers  ascend  for  that  true 
heart,  present  with  us  today,  his  daughter,  Cornelia  Dow,  whom  he  so  greatly 
loved,  and  who,  in  these  long  and  heavy  months  of  his  slowly  waning  strength, 
has  been  the  constant  nurse  and  guardian,  helping  him  on  through  the  valley  of 
his  ninety-fourth  year  as  none  other  could;  listening  to  him  as  he  said,  "  I  have 
no  ill-feeling  toward  any  being  that  lives  ' ' ;  grieving  with  tears  she  bravely  hid 
when  once  he  said,  just  at  the  last,  "It  is  the  end,  and  it  is  all  right ' ' ;  and 
watching,  as  only  a  devoted  daughter  could,  when,  from  his  sweet  sleep  that 
great  soul  was  translated  to  the  world  ' '  into  which  shall  enter  nothing  that 
defileth,  neither  whatsoever  loveth  and  maketh  a  lie." 

Some  years  ago  two  noble  women  in  Norway  determined  that  the  W.  C.  T. 
U.  should  become  a  recognized  institution  in  that  heroic  land.  One  of  them  was 
Ida,  Countess  Wedel  Jarlsberg,  a  maid  of  honor  to  the  Queen  of  Sweden  and 
Norway;  the  other  was  Miss  Esmark.  They  were  devoted  Christians,  of  remark- 
able character  and  culture,  and  were  warm  friends;  and  they  buckled  on  their 
armor  —  no,  it  would  be  truer  to  say  they  submitted  their  necks  to  the  yoke. 
The  result  was  a  strong  society  that  has  done  immeasurable  good  in  the  brave, 
beautiful  country  of  poets,  explorers  and  philanthropists.  We  shall  never  forget 
the  cable  that  came  from  Trondheim  when  the  National  Society  met  there  in 
1893.  The  hearty  good  will  of  such  a  noble  band  swept  down  from  those 
heights  like  a  waft  of  good  cheer.  But  Birgithe  Esmark,  the  right  hand  of  the 
Countess,  whose  bright  personality  had  deeply  impressed  us  through  her  letters, 
has  in  the  last  year  endured  a  slow  and  painful  passage  from  her  good  life  here  to 
the  better  life  beyond.  Her  release  came  on  the  2d  of  April  last.  It  would  be 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  199 

useless  to  try  to  express  the  chastened  sorrow  of  the  dear  Countess  and  White 
Ribbon  band  in  Norway,  or  to  give  adequate  expression  to  the  sense  of  loss  felt 
by  the  officers  of  the  World's  W.  C.  T.  U.  Our  prayers  are  theirs,  and,  like 
them,  we  lift  up  our  hearts,  asking,  Who  shall  come  to  the  kingdom  for  such  a 
time  as  this,  and  lift  the  white  banner  for  God  and  home  and  native  land  that  our 
Sister  Birgithe  held  so  steadily  aloft?  Who  will  answer  —  for  the  time  is  short? 
The  temperance  reform  has  hardly  produced  a  more  remarkable  character 
than  James  H.  Raper,  whom  we  lost  this  year.  He  became  an  abstainer  in  1837. 
He  remembered  the  time  when  England  owned  six  hundred  thousand  slaves,  but 
he  lived  on  with  the  glow  of  health  in  his  noble  face  until  the  reform  to  which  he 
had  given  his  life  had  become  the  stalwart  of  the  century.  He  was  one  of  the 
finest  popular  orators  that  any  movement  has  produced.  When  he  came  to 
America,  in  1876,  and  I  heard  him  in  the  Academy  of  Music,  in  Philadelphia,  I 
knew  he  was  a  master  ;  and  twenty  years  later,  in  London,  in  the  church  of  Rev. 
F.  B.  Meyer,  where  I  spoke  with  him  just  before  sailing  for  home,  a  year  ago,  I 
said  to  myself,  ' '  His  bow  abides  in  strength. ' '  He  invested  fifty  years  of 
devoted  work  for  the  temperance  reform,  and,  with  hardly  a  day's  illness,  slipped 
away  into  the  better  life.  He  told  us  that  he  ' '  never  traveled  alone,  for  grace, 
mercy  and  peace  were  always  with  him."  To  hear  him  was  an  education  and 
an  inspiration  both.  Whenever  he  appeared  on  the  platform  the  people  rose  up 
to  greet  him  with  that  warmth  of  applause  in  which  the  English  excel  all  other 
nations.  I  wish  to  put  on  record  his  personal  kindness  to  White  Ribboners  who 
went  to  England.  Our  dear  Miss  Ames  told  me  when  she  returned  what  I  can 
say  as  truly,  that  he  was  always  willing  to  go  anywhere  in  London  sightseeing 
with  her,  and  was  better  than  any  book  she  could  have  carried,  so  familiar  was 
his  knowledge  of  the  historic  wonders  of  that  city.  When  I  went  with  him  to 
City  Road  Chapel  he  had  me  stand  in  Wesley's  pulpit,  and  together  we  sang 
that  famous  old  Methodist  hymn : 

"Oh,  how  happy  are  they  who  their  Saviour  obey, 
And  have  laid  up  their  treasure  above." 

He  told  me  then  that  he  used  to  get  up  at  five  o'  clock  in  the  morning  to  attend 
class  meeting  in  that  building  when  he  was  a  youth.  He  took  me  to  the  room  in 
which  those  undying  words  were  uttered  by  the  dying  founder  of  the  church  I 
loved,  "  The  best  of  all  is,  God  is  with  us" ;  and  then,  as  he  put  me  into  a  cab 
after  we  had  thoroughly  viewed  the  old  cemetery  where  lie  the  remains  of  so 
many  world-known  heroes  and  heroines,  I  thanked  him  as  I  said  good-by,  when, 
with  beaming  face,  he  waved  adieu,  saying,  "Pass  it  on."  That  was  the  motto 
of  his  life,  and  no  one  was  more  intent  to  ' '  pass  on ' '  everything  that  was  good 
and  comforting  than  our  gifted  brother  who  is  gone. 

In  the  swifter  pace  of  these  last  years,  set  to  the  key  of  the  telegraph's  click 


2OO 

and  the  typewriter's  chorus,  we  linger  not  so  long  at  the  graveside  of  those  who 
leave  us  ;  the  rising  waves  that  we  must  meet  each  day  seem  to  absorb  what  force 
we  have,  and  few  things  have  grieved  me  more  than  to  note  the  lengthening  roll 
of  honor  of  our  promoted  ones  who  drop  from  the  ranks  of  an  army  that  marches 
at  a  quick  step.  But  I  like  to  believe  that  they,  in  their  heavenly  individuality, 
are  even  busier  than  we  in  the  beatitude  of  faculties  that  do  not  weary,  and  that 
with  some  bright  knowledge  of  us,  and  helpful  influence  sent  out  to  us  according 
to  our  need,  they  happily  pursue  their  vocations  with  an  infinite  freedom  and  joy. 
I  wish  we  might  hold  the  names  ' '  writ  large ' '  upon  our  records  in  more 
vivid  remembrance  by  attaching  them  to  our  enlarging  work.  It  seems  to  me 
that  we  should  thus  remember  a  comrade  so  serenely  active  as  was  our  first 
treasurer,  Mrs.  Ella  C.  Williams,  of  Montreal,  who,  although  suffering  under  a 
most  painful  disease,  was  writing  up  her  books  and  sending  checks  almost  up  to 
the  day  she  left  us.  I,  therefore,  venture  to  propose  that  we  institute  a  fund  for 
our  Round-the- World  Missionaries,  enabling  them  to  go  forth  with  a  sense  of 
independence,  because  they  know  there  is  help  specially  provided  and  to  which 
they  can  turn  in  time  of  need;  and  that  this  be  named  the  "  Ella  Williams  Fund," 
in  perpetual  memory  of  a  woman  loved  and  honored  by  our  Crusade  sisters  and 
throughout  the  ranks  of  the  World's  W.  C.  T.  U.,  to  which  she  freely  gave 
those  winsome  services  in  which  a  sister's  love  was  mingled  with  the  business 
acumen  of  a  master  of  finance. 

Vainly  we  weep  and  wrestle  with  our  sorrow  — 
We  cannot  see  His  roads,  they  lie  so  broad; 
But  His  eternal  day  knows  no  tomorrow, 
And  life  and  death  are  all  the  same  with  God. 


"  POOR  RICH." 

Many  of  us  have  heard  Lady  Henry  Somerset  relate  with  her  inimitable 
drollery  the  following  incident:  She  was  present  in  a  Salvation  Army  meeting  in 
the  slums  of  London,  at  which  the  presiding  officer  in  his  bright  uniform  was 
vehemently  ' '  laying  it  off "  in  a  denunciation  of  the  rich.  Near  her  a  poor 
inebriate  Irish  woman  was  seated,  who  to  her  natural  geniality  of  disposition 
added  the  garrulity  of  her  condition,  and  as  the  Salvation  Army  brother  grew 
more  and  more  excited  as  he  depicted  the  contrast  between  the  West  End  and 
the  East  End  of  London,  the  old  woman  wagged  her  head,  and  in  a  seeming 
soliloquy  she  said  in  her  warm-hearted  Irish  tones,  "Poor  rich!  they've  a  dale  to 
contind  aginst/"  Lady  Henry  said  she  greatly  appreciated  the  remark,  and 
thought  it  as  true  as  it  was  kindly.  White  Ribbon  women  hold  the  same 
opinion;  they  strongly  feel  that  the  growing  distance  between  rich  and  poor  in 
this  and  other  countries  is  not  so  much  the  fault  of  anybody  as  it  is  the  necessary 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  201 

result  of  that  process  of  development  which  no  class  can  greatly  help  or  hinder. 
We  rejoice  in  the  unnumbered  tokens  of  a  conscientious  use  of  property  on  the 
part  of  men  and  women  who  are  Christians  not  in  name  but  in  fact.  We  some- 
times wonder  that  these  good  people  do  not  help  us  more,  for  our  treasurer's 
reports  show  that  no  society  so  large  and  influential  has  received  so  little  help 
from  those  who  have  full  pocketbooks  and  generous  bank  accounts.  But  we 
remember  that  it  has  been  our  painful  duty  to  antagonize  the  politics  and  to 
some  extent  the  customs  of  those  who  have  property,  and  that,  after  all,  it  may 
be  best  for  reformers  to  find  themselves  hedged  in  by  financial  disabilities. 
Therefore,  let  it  be  understood  that  when  we  speak  out  against  the  rich,  it  is 
not  because  we  have  any  harsh  feeling  toward  these  brothers  and  sisters  of  ours 
as  a  class, "but  only  that  we  believe  it  is  our  duty  to  cry  aloud  and  spare  not 
against  the  inequality  of  condition  that  the  present  economic  system  cannot  help 
involving. 

OUR    DISAPPOINTMENT. 

Two  comrades  upon  whose  presence  we  had  greatly  counted  cannot  be  with 
us.  To  miss  their  winsome  presence,  ready  wit  and  gifts  of  speech  and  sympa- 
thy is  a  loss  that  we  all  deeply  feel.  I  refer  to  Lady  Henry  Somerset  and  Lady 
Windeyer.  And  we  are  the  more  grieved  because  the  reasons  that  have  pre- 
vented their  union  with  us  at  this  happy  feast  suggest  to  our  chastened  hearts 
life's  pain  and  loss.  Sir  William  Windeyer,  ex-Chancellor  of  the  University  of 
Sydney,  New  South  Wales,  and  barrister-at-law,  died  suddenly  a  few  weeks  ago 
while  on  his  way  with  his  daughters  from  Switzerland  to  England,  and  Lady 
Windeyer,  who  was  expecting  soon  to  sail  for  this  country  as  one  of  our  delegates, 
was  obliged  to  return  to  Australia.  I  need  not  say  that  she  and  her  family  have 
the  sisterly  sympathy  of  this  entire  Convention,  which  will  be  expressed  at  the 
memorial  service  and  by  letters  that  you  will  authorize. 

Lady  Henry  Somerset  has  not  been  well  for  months,  and  Sir  James  Sawyer, 
one  of  England's  stanchest  teetotal  physicians,  has  declared  that  it  would  be 
hazardous  for  her  to  attempt  the  sea  voyage.  Lady  Henry  is  resting  quietly  at 
Eastnor  Castle,  whence  she  has  sent  us  messages  of  affection  from  the  loving 
heart  that  we  know  so  well  and  cherish  so  warmly.  I  hope  to  see  her  before 
long,  and  shall  bear  to  her  the  assurance  of  your  devoted  sympathy. 

LIVES    THAT   LIVE   ON. 

One  day  a  young  nobleman  on  horseback  rode  impatiently  up  and  down  the 
streets  of  a  village  in  Cornwall.  He  was  seeking  for  a  public  r  ouse  where  he 
could  get  a  glass  of  that  concerning  which  our  Shakespeare  raid,  "Alas,  that 
men  should  put  an  enemy  in  their  mouths  to  steal  away  their  brains."  But  his 
search  was  vain,  and  coming  upon  a  white-haired  peasant  on  his  way  home  after  a 


202  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

day  of  toil,  the  young  man  said  with  rising  anger,  "  Why  is  it  that  I  cannot  get 
a  glass  of  liquor  in  this  wretched  little  village  ?' '  The  old  man  recognized  to 
whom  he  was  to  speak,  and  taking  off  his  cap  made  his  humble  obeisance  and 
replied,  "  My  lord,  about  a  hundred  years  ago  a  man  named  John  Wesley  came 
to  these  parts" — and  the  old  peasant  walked  on.  "A  hundred  years,"  and  he 
was  living  still,  that  dauntless,  devoted  disciple  of  our  Lord!  Cornwall  has  never 
been  the  same  since  John  Wesley  went  there  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  a  clear  brain 
and  a  consecrated  heart.  Of  whom  will  such  great  words  be  spoken  when  a  cen- 
tury has  passed  in  those  dear  countries  of  the  English-speaking  race,  from  which 
most  of  us  have  come  ?  Who  doubts  but  that  in  Maine  some  good  man  going  to 
his  safe  and  happy  home  will  be  saying  in  answer  to  some  unfriendly  wight,  vexed 
because  he  cannot  get  his  dram,  "  A  hundred  years  ago  a  man  named  Neal  Dow 
came  to  these  parts ' '  ?  Who  does  not  believe  that  in  Canada  some  loyal  voice 
will  give  the  explanation,  ' '  A  hundred  years  ago  Letitia  Youmans  came  to  these 
parts ' '  ?  Verily,  comrades,  we  are  building  better  than  we  know.  It  is  a  holy 
thing,  this  influence  that  reaches  on  and  away  into  illimitable  distance;  this  com- 
ing to  be  one  of  the  wheels  within  the  wheels  that  are  the  wheels  of  God.  For  it 
is  said,  ' '  The  wheels  were  full  of  eyes, ' '  and  these  eyes  are  on  us  when  we  know 
it  not;  they  see  us  when  we  wake  and  when  we  sleep. 

The  following  letter  written  by  Lady  Henry  Somerset  to  Lord 
George  Hamilton  gave  Miss  Willard  great  joy  and  was  a  fulfill- 
ment of  the  belief  which  she  expressed  in  her  Toronto  address 
concerning  our  beloved  English  leader: 

EASTNOR  CASTLE,  LEDBURY,  ENG. 
January  28,  1898. 

DEAR  LORD  GEORGE  HAMILTON, —  Your  lordship  invited  me  two  months 
ago  to  give  you  my  view  of  the  dispatch  that  had  been  addressed  to  the  govern- 
ment of  India  on  the  health  of  the  army,  and  in  a  letter  in  which  I  did  so  I  ven- 
tured to  suggest  some  methods,  moral  and  disciplinary,  which  seemed  to  me  the 
only  ones  likely  to  succeed,  because  they  had  at  least  the  merit  of  being  logical.* 
I  was  lead  to  do  so  by  two  considerations.  First,  the  dispatch  in  question 
seemed  to  imply  that  the  government  would  give  encouragement  to  any  form  of 
elevating  agency,  and  so  emphasize  the  altered  spirit  in  which  the  subject  was 
approached,  and  that  such  suggested  supervision  would  only  affect  an  incorri- 
gible minimum  ;  and  second,  that  the  system  I  had  in  mind  would  be  so  drastic 
and  penal  in  its  nature  as  to  make  state  interference  odious  and  finally  impossible. 

That  was  ten  months  ago,  and  in  that  time  nothing  has  been  done  of  which 

*This  refers  to  the  position  taken  by  Lady  Henry  Somerset  that  if  regulations  were 
introduced,  there  should  be  no  discrimination  in  the  examination  of  the  sexes. 


FOUNDER    OF   WORLD'S    W.  C.  T.  U.  203 

the  public  has  heard  to  strengthen  the  forces  that  make  for  moral  improvement. 
What  has  been  done  —  namely,  the  repeal  of  the  Indian  acts  of  1895,  which 
prohibited  inspection  —  has  been  in  a  direction  exactly  opposite.  It  seems  to 
have  been  the  object  of  the  government  to  obtain  the  maximum  of  impunity  with 
the  minimum  of  protest  from  those  who  desire  to  see  the  state  shape  its  actions 
according  to  Christian  views  of  ethics. 

I  need  not  tell  your  lordship  I  am  not  writing  to  say  how  strongly  I  am  still 
opposed  to  the  course  which  the  government  has  taken,  but  I  find  that  my  letter 
to  your  lordship  of  last  year  has  been  taken  by  many  to  mean  that  I  am  on  the 
side  of  the  accepted  view  of  state  regulation,  and  I  am  from  time  to  time  quoted 
as  a  sympathizer  with  such  views. 

I  am  therefore  writing  to  withdraw  any  proposals  made  in  that  letter,  for  the 
reason  that  the  events  of  the  past  year  have  convinced  me  of  the  inadvisability 
and  extreme  danger  of  the  system  that  in  April  last  I  thought  might  be  insti- 
tuted. The  absence  of  any  serious  effort  by  the  government  to  bring  about  a 
higher  standard  in  the  army  is  a  final  proof  to  me  that  as  long  as  regulation  of 
any  kind  can  be  resorted  to  as  a  remedy  it  will  always  be  regarded  as  the  one 
and  only  panacea.  My  view  was  that  it  would  be  instituted  as  an  odious,  but 
possibly  effective,  auxiliary  to  moral  efforts.  I  find  it  will  always  be  accepted  as 
a  convenient  substitute. 

•  I  take  the  liberty  of  addressing  this  explicit  withdrawal  of  an  indorsement, 
of  whatever  form,  ot  the  principle  of  regulation,  because  it  was  in  a  letter  to 
your  lordship  that  I  originally  incurred  the  responsibility.  I  trust,  therefore,  to 
your  lordship's  indulgence  to  forgive  me  troubling  you  further  with  the  matter. 

I  remain,  my  lord, 

Yours  very  truly, 

ISABEL  SOMERSET. 


CHAPTER  X 

A    GREAT   MOTHER 

are  born  great,  some  achieve  greatness,  some  have 
greatness  thrust  upon  them. "  "Of  my  blessed  mother, " 
writes  Miss  Willard,  "all  these  affirmations  are  true. 
There  are  not  many  men,  and  as  yet  but  few  women,  of  whom 
when  you  think  or  speak  it  occurs  to  you  that  they  are  great. 
What  is  the  line  that  could  mark  such  a  sphere  ?  To  my  mind  it 
must  include  this  trinity  —  greatness  of  thought,  of  heart,  of  will. 
There  have  been  men  and  women  concerning  whose  greatness  of 
intellect  none  disputed,  but  they  were  poverty-stricken  in  the  region 
of  the  affections,  or  they  were  Liliputians  in  the  realm  of  will. 
There  have  been  mighty  hearts,  beating  strong  and  full  as  a  ship's 
engine,  but  they  were  mated  to  a  '  straightened  forehead. '  There 
have  been  Napoleonic  wills,  but  unbalanced  by  strong  power  of 
thought  and  sentiment  —  they  were  like  a  cyclone  or  a  wandering 
star.  It  takes  force  centrifugal  and  force  centripetal  to  balance 
and  hold  a  character  to  the  ellipse  of  a  true  orbit. 

1 '  My  mother,  my  Saint  Courageous,  was  great  in  the  sense  of 
this  majestic  symmetry.  The  classic  writer  who  said,  'I  am 
human,  and  whatever  touches  humanity  touches  me,'  could  not 
have  been  more  worthy  to  utter  the  words  than  was  this  Methodist 
cosmopolite  who  spoke  them  to  me  within  a  few  days  of  her  ascent 
to  heaven.  She  had  no  pettiness.  It  was  the  habit  of  her  mind 
to  study  subjects  from  the  point  of  harmony.  She  did  not  say, 
'Wherein  does  this  Baptist  or  this  Presbyterian  differ  from  the 
creed  in  which  I  have  been  reared  ?'  But  it  was  as  natural  to  her 
as  it  is  to  a  rose  to  give  forth  fragrance  to  say  to  herself  and  others : 

204 


A    GREAT  MOTHER  205 

'Wherein  does  this  Presbyterian  or  Baptist  harmonize  with  the 
views  that  are  dear  to  me  ?'  Then  she  dwelt  upon  that  harmony, 
and  through  it  brought  those  about  her  into  oneness  of  sympathy 
with  herself.  She  was  occupied  with  great  themes.  I  never  heard 
a  word  of  gossip  from  her  lips.  She  had  no  time  for  it.  Her  life 
illustrated  the  poet's  line: 

'There  is  no  finer  flower  on  this  green  earth  than  courage.' 

' '  My  mother  had  courage  of  intellect  and  heart,  and  physical 
courage  as  well,  beyond  any  other  woman  that  I  have  known. 
'  We  are  saved  by  hope, '  was  the  motto  of  her  life.  '  This  is  our 
part,  and  all  the  part  we  have, '  she  used  to  say.  '  The  existence 
and  love  of  God  are  the  pulse  of  our  being  whether  we  live  or  die.' 

' '  Some  characters  have  a  great  and  varied  landscape,  and  a 
light  like  that  of  Raphael's  pictures ;  others  show  forth  some  strong, 
single  feature  in  a  light  like  that  of  Rembrandt;  some  have  head- 
lands and  capes,  bays  and  skies,  meadows  and  prairies  and  seas; 
the  more  scenery  there  is  in  a  character,  the  greater  it  is  —  the 
more  it  ranges  from  the  amusing  to  the  sublime.  My  mother's 
nature  had  in  it  perspective,  atmosphere,  landscape  of  earth 
and  sky. 

"She  was  not  given  to  introspection,  which  is  so  often  the 
worm  in  the  bud  of  genius.  '  They  are  not  great  who  counsel  with 
their  fears.'  Applied  Christianity  was  the  track  along  which  the 
energy  of  her  nature  was  driven  by  the  Divine  Spirit.  She  would 
have  been  just  as  great  whether  the  world  had  ever  learned  of  it 
or  not.  '  Mute  Miltons  '  are  not  all  '  inglorious, '  and  however  small 
the  circle  might  have  been  in  which  she  spent  her  days,  she  whom 
we  loved  and  for  awhile  have  lost,  would  inevitably  have  been 
recognized  as  one  adequate  to  the  ruling  of  a  state  or  a  nation  with 
mild  and  masterly  sway.  The  fortunes  of  the  great  White  Ribbon 
cause  gave  her  a  pedestal  to  stand  upon.  She  had  been,  in  her 
beautiful  home,  a  mother  so  beloved  that  she  drew  all  her  house- 
hold toward  her  as  the  sun  does  the  planets  round  about  him,  but 
she  became  a  mother  to  our  whole  army.  She  came  to  the  king- 


206  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

dom  for  a  sorrowful  time,  when  homes  were  shadowed  over  all  the 
land  and  her  motherly  nature  found  a  circle  as  wide  as  the  shadow 
cast  upon  the  Republic  by  the  nation's  dark  eclipse.  Perhaps,  until 
then,  she  had  not  been  a  radical  so  pronounced  as  she  became  in 
these  later  battle  years,  but  what  she  saw  and  learned  and  suffered, 
out  in  the  cross-currents  of  society  and  the  great  world,  made  her 
as  strong  a  believer  in  the  emancipation  of  woman  as  any  person 
whom  I  have  ever  met.  She  had  no  harsh  word  for  anybody;  no 
criticism  on  the  past.  She  recognized  the  present  situation  as  the 
inevitable  outcome  of  the  age  of  force,  but  her  great  soul  was  suf- 
fused to  its  last  fiber  with  the  enthusiasm  for  woman.  She  believed 
in  her  sex;  she  had  pride  in  it;  she  regarded  its  capacities  of  mental 
and  moral  improvement  as  illimitable,  but  at  the  same  time  she 
was  a  devoted  friend  to  men.  How  could  she  be  otherwise  with  a 
husband  true  and  loyal  and  with  a  loving  and  genial  son?  All  her 
ideas  upon  the  woman  question  were  but  a  commentary  upon  her 
devotion  to  that  larger  human  question  which  is  the  great  circle  of 
which  the  woman  question  is  but  an  arc.  Oftentimes  I  have  said 
to  myself,  '  If  this  temperance  movement  had  come  to  women  in 
her  day  what  a  great  magnetic  leader  she  would  have  been.  How 
wholly  she  would  have  given  herself  to  the  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  Union,  seeing  in  it  the  outcome  of  all  her  hopes  and 
prophecies,  for  the  protection  of  the  home  and  the  regnancy  of 
' '  two  heads  in  counsel,  two  beside  the  hearth. " 

The  following  reference  to  Madam  Willard's  charming  meth- 
ods of  child  culture  is  given  by  her  daughter: 

' '  She  never  expected  us  to  be  bad  children.  I  never  heard 
her  refer  to  total  depravity  as  our  inevitable  heritage;  she  always 
said  when  we  were  cross,  '  Where  is  my  bright  little  girl  that  is  so 
pleasant  to  have  about  ?  Somebody  must  have  taken  her  away 
and  left  this  little  creature  here  who  has  a  scowl  upon  her  face. '  She 
always  expected  us  to  do  well ;  and  after  a  long  and  beautiful  life, 
when  she  was  sitting  in  sunshine  calm  and  sweet  at  eighty-seven 
years  of  age,  she  said  to  one  who  asked  what  she  would  have 
done  differently  as  a  mother  if  she  had  her  life  to  live  over  again, 


A    GREAT  MOTHER  207 

'  I  should  blame  less  and  praise  more. '  She  used  to  say  that  a 
little  child  is  a  figure  of  pathos.  Without  volition  of  its  own  it 
finds  itself  in  a  most  difficult  scene;  it  looks  around  on  every  side 
for  help,  and  we  who  are  grown  way-wise  should  make  it  feel  at  all 
times  tenderly  welcome,  and  nourish  it  in  the  fruitful  atmosphere 
of  love,  trust  and  approbation. 

' '  With  such  a  mother  my  home  life  was  full  of  inspiration ;  she 
encouraged  every  out-branching  thought  and  purpose.  When  I 
wished  to  play  out-of-doors  with  my  brother,  and  do  the  things  he 
did,  she  never  said,  '  Oh,  that  is  not  for  girls  !'  but  encouraged 
him  to  let  me  be  his  little  comrade;  by  which  means  he  became 
the  most  considerate,  chivalric  boy  I  ever  knew,  for  mother  taught 
him  that  nothing  could  be  more  for  her  happiness  and  his  than  that 
he  should  be  good  to  '  little  sister. '  By  this  means  I  spent  a  great 
deal  of  time  in  the  open  air,  and  learned  the  pleasant  sports  by 
which  boys  store  up  vigor  for  the  years  to  come.  She  used  to  take 
me  on  her  knee  and  teach  me  the  poems  of  which  she  was  most 
fond,  explaining  what  the  poet  meant,  so  that  even  at  an  early  age 
I  could  understand  much  that  was  dear  to  her.  Then  she  would 
place  me  —  a  fragile  little  figure  —  on  a  chair  or  table,  and  have  me 
repeat  these  poems,  '  suiting  the  action  to  the  word. '  Once  when 
a  neighbor  came  in  and  told  her  that  Frankie  was  standing  on  the 
gatepost  making  a  speech,  and  warned  her  that  she  must  curb  my 
curious  taste,  mother  ran  out  delighted,  took  me  in  her  arms,  and 
without  criticising  me  for  having  chosen  such  a  public  pedestal,  told 
me  she  thought  I  would  better  say  '  my  pieces '  to  her  rather  than 
to  anyone  who  might  be  passing  by,  because  she  understood  them 
better  and  could  help  me  to  speak  them  right."  Thus,  without 
reproof,  but  by  substituting  the  more  excellent  way,  she  had  the  rare 
and  happy  art  of  securing  obedience  without  seeming  to  seek  for  it. 
' '  To  my  mind, "  says  her  daughter,  ' '  the  jewel  of  her  character  and 
method  with  her  children  was  that  she  knew  how  without  effort  to 
keep  an  open  way  always  between  her  inmost  heart  and  theirs; 
they  wanted  no  other  comforter;  everybody  seemed  less  desirable 
than  mother.  If  something  very  pleasant  happened  to  us  when 


208  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

we  were  out  playing  with  other  children,  or  spending  an  afternoon 
at  a  neighbor's,  we  would  scamper  home  as  fast  as  our  little  feet 
would  carry  us,  because  we  did  not  feel  as  if  we  had  gained  the 
full  happiness  from  anything  that  came  to  us  until  mother  knew  it. " 

Sir  Walter  Scott  tells  a  story  of  a  brave  young  knight  in  whose 
soul  burned  the  Crusader's  passion  to  rescue  from  the  infidels'  defil- 
ing hands  the  tomb  of  his  hero-Christ.  Girding  on  shield  and 
buckler  and  sword,  he  knelt  before  the  woman  who  through  the 
years  had  given  her  life  to  him  in  lavishment  of  mother-love  and 
claimed  her  mother-blessing  on  his  eager  heart's  desire.  With 
never  a  falter  of  voice  or  a  sob  to  betray  her  anguish  of  grief  and 
fear,  with  never  a  tremble  in  the  hand  that  touched  his  bright 
young  head,  with  only  courage  in  tender  tone  and  touch  she  sent 
him  forth,  inspired  by  her  blessing  under  the  banner  of  her  love. 
In  his  garments  she  hid  her  jewels  against  his  hour  of  need,  and 
with  the  promise  that  she  would  stay  at  home  and  guard  for  him 
his  castle  and  his  lands,  she  bade  him  depart,  remembering  that 
his  glory  was  to  redress  human  wrongs,  to  keep  a  spotless  sword 
and  soul. 

When  many  years  had  come  and  gone  and  the  youth  returned 
crowned  with  victories  won  on  many  a  field  where  he  had  van- 
quished wrong,  he  found  his  castle  and  his  lands  better  cared  for 
than  when  he  left,  his  people  taught  to  reverence  his  name  and  to 
love  him  for  his  knightly  deeds. 

This  beautiful  picture  of  the  Scottish  novelist  but  faintly  sets 
forth  the  work  of  that  noble  mother,  "Saint  Courageous, "  who, 
when  the  daughter  went  forth  the  ' '  Knight  of  a  New  Chivalry, " 
kept  the  fires  of  love  burning  brightly  upon  her  hearth,  kept  the 
light  in  the  window  for  the  brave  daughter  who  went  forth  on  her 
crusade  pilgrimages,  not  to  save  an  empty  tomb,  but  to  rescue  the 
living  Christ  in  human  hearts  from  the  enemies  that  defile  the 
temple  of  God. 

To  the  music  of  the  Traveler's  Psalm  (i2ist),  accompanied  by 
the  strong,  tender  voice  of  commending  prayer,  Mother  Willard 
sent  forth  her  apostle  of  sweetness  and  purity  and  light,  even  as  of 


FRANCES  E.  WILLARD 
ROM  PHOTOQRAPH  BY  ALICE  HUQHES,  LONDON. 


A    GREAT  MOTHER  209 

old  that  English  mother  commended  her  young  knight  to  the 
guidance  of  Him  who  had  promised  victory  to  all  who  war  against 
iniquity  and  sin.  And  to  that  heart  and  home  the  gentle  con- 
queror hastened  back  less  like  a  victor  to  claim  her  own  than  like 
a  bird  to  its  sheltering  nest.  Here  one  month  at  least  of  every 
year  was  given  to  her  mother,  that  the  springs  of  love  and  hope 
and  inspiration  might  be  refilled.  Sitting  by  the  fire  with  clasped 
hands,  the  mother  would  give  to  her  daughter  reminiscences  of  her 
early  life,  telling  of  the  beautiful  Christian  traits  of  her  father  and 
mother;  recalling  to  mind  the  older  home  in  Vermont;  describing 
the  noble  hills  upon  which  her  windows  looked;  recounting  the  way 
she  spent  her  days,  the  morning  hours  given  to  books  and  study,  the 
afternoons  to  weaving,  spinning  and  household  cares,  the  evenings 
spent  again  about  the  fireside,  until  when  9  o'clock  struck,  the  entire 
household  assembled  while  her  father  read  from  the  dear  old  Bible 
and,  by  the  force  of  fervent  prayer,  drew  them  all  within  the  circle 
of  divine  protection  and  love.  Often  the  household  saint  would 
break  forth  into  words  of  gratitude  for  the  long  life  that  had  been 
so  rich  in  opportunity,  so  blessed  with  friendships  and  affection. 
Often  she  rejoiced  in  the  good  gift  of  the  uninterrupted  strength  that 
enabled  her  to  fill  all  the  years  with  toil.  Neither  mother  nor 
daughter  were  ever  able  to  brook  the  thought  of  invalidism;  they 
could  not  bear  to  think  of  rivers  that  die  away  in  the  sand  before 
their  force  is  spent.  They  wished  rather  to  resemble  those  streams 
which  run  full-breasted  to  the  sea,  and  bear  to  the  ocean  upon  their 
bosoms  fleets  of  prosperity  and  of  peace. 

' '  I  must  keep  well  for  the  sake  of  my  daughter  and  the  work 
God  has  given  her  to  do, "  would  say  this  sympathetic  mother,  who 
in  her  seventieth  year  led  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  of  her  own  town.  If 
the  daughter  encircled  the  world  with  the  white  ribbon  of  love  and 
sympathy,  the  threads  of  that  shining  strand  were  surely  spun  in 
the  warp  and  woof  of  her  mother's  loving  care. 

Each  passing  season  as  the  years  sped  on  found  her  more  and 
more  the  child  of  happiness  and  hope.  Pilgrims  from  the  noble 
army  of  workers  who  turned  from  life's  fret  and  fever  to  seek  an  hour 

14 


210  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

apart  in  Rest  Cottage  will  remember  the  sunny  upper  room  which 
all  looked  upon  as  the  chamber  of  peace.  Its  tranquillity  was  the 
atmosphere  exhaled  by  the  sweet  spirit  of  this  woman  of  courage 
and  of  buoyant  optimism,  this  self-sustained  soul,  whose  quietness 
and  assurance  were  her  strength. 

In  that  chamber  bright  with  her  presence  one  always  found 
Madam  Willard  with  a  serene  smile  upon  her  face  and  a  word  of 
good  cheer  trembling  on  her  lips.  On  the  tables  around  her  were 
grouped  her  favorite  authors,  scrapbooks  upon  which  she  was 
working,  letters  and  documents  intended  to  further  the  beloved 
cause  of  reform.  During  her  daughter's  long  absences  Madam 
Willard  was  lovingly  ministered  to  by  the  White  Ribbon  sisters  who 
for  many  years  made  a  home  for  themselves  in  the  addition  to  Rest 
Cottage,  built  and  formerly  occupied  by  Mrs.  Mary  B.  Willard. 

Recalling  her  first  visit  to  Rest  Cottage  in  October,  1891, 
Lady  Henry  Somerset,  whom  Mrs.  Willard  fondly  called  her 
"English  daughter,"  writes:  "When  I  came  to  your  shores  a 
stranger  a  year  ago,  the  name  of  Frances  Willard  was  as  familiar  to 
me  as  it  is  to  women  all  over  the  world  who  are  in  any  way  associ- 
ated with  works  of  philanthopy  or  the  upbuilding  of  the  home.  I 
had  read  her  life  and  had  some  knowledge  of  her  work,  and  with 
that  work  of  course  her  mother's  name  was  closely  associated.  But 
only  when  I  crossed  the  threshold  of  Rest  Cottage  could  I  realize 
what  a  factor  that  mother  had  been  in  her  great  career.  I  have 
mingled  with  those  who  are  called  noble  because  of  hereditary 
descent;  I  have  talked  with  empresses  and  queens,  with  princesses 
and  princes,  but  when  I  took  the  hand  of  Madam  Willard  and  she 
welcomed  me  to  her  heart  and  home,  I  knew  instantly  and  instinc- 
tively that  here  was  one  of  the  world's  great  women.  A  lady  of 
such  fine,  delicate  instinct,  with  a  mind  so  cultivated  and  purified 
by  continued  aspiration  toward  the  good  and  true;  with  a  face 
serene  and  full  of  all  that  inherent  worth  which  came  to  her  through 
her  spotless  ancestry  and  her  own  natural  purity  and  refinement,  I 
at  once  classed  with  all  the  greatest  and  noblest  that  I  had  ever 
met.  I  need  not  dwell  here  upon  the  way  in  which  that  home 


A    GREAT  MOTHER  211 

circle  impressed  me,  but  as  I  turn  the  pages  of  my  Bible,  I  find  a 
note  entered  there  which  I  wrote  the  first  night  in  which  I  came 
beneath  that  roof:  'October  28,  1891 — A  day  to  be  remembered 
in  thanksgiving.  Rest  Cottage,  Evanston. ' ' 

Mrs.  Wiilard's  mind  was  stored  with  much  of  the  best  English 
prose  and  verse  of  which  in  her  rhythmic  expressive  voice  she  would 
often  recite  her  favorite  stanzas. 

Sitting  at  the  head  of  the  table  on  the  morning  of  her  eighty- 
seventh  birthday,  she  quoted  the  following  lines: 

"  Never,  my  heart,  shalt  thou  grow  old; 
My  hair  is  white,  my  blood  runs  cold, 
And  one  by  one  my  powers  depart, 
But  youth  sits  smiling  in  my  -heart." 

Her  daughter  writes:  A  volume  of  household  words  might  readily 
be  made  from  my  recollections  of  mother's  quotations  from  poets 
and  philosophers.  Her  motto,  "  It  is  better  farther  on,"  was  taken 
from  ' '  The  Song  of  Hope, "  and  the  memory  of  her  low  sustained 
voice,  as  she  used  to  repeat  it,  will  forever  linger  in  the  hearts  of 
those  who  heard. 

' '  A  soft  sweet  voice  from  Eden  stealing, 

Such  as  but  to  angels  known, 
Hope's  cheering  song  is  ever  thrilling, 
It  is  better  farther  on. 

"  I  hear  hope  singing,  sweetly  singing, 

Softly  in  an  undertone; 
And  singing  as  if  God  had  taught  it, 
It  is  better  farther  on. 

' '  Still  farther  on,  oh,  how  much  farther  ? 

Count  the  milestones  one  by  one? 
No  !  No  !  no  counting  !     Only  trusting 
It  is  better  farther  on." 

Two  of  her  favorite  preachers  were  George  McDonald  and 
Phillips  Brooks.  From  the  first  she  often  quoted  this  sentiment: 
"Age  is  not  all  decay,  it  is  the  ripening,  the  swelling  of  the  fresh 
life  within  that  withers  and  bursts  the  husks. "  And  from  the  sec- 


212  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

ond  she  quoted  the  question :  ' '  Why  cannot  we,  slipping  our 
hands  into  His  each  day,  walk  trustingly  over  the  day's  appointed 
path,  thorny  or  flowery,  crooked  or  straight,  knowing  that  evening 
will  bring  us  sweet  peace  and  home  ?  " 

She  was  wont  to  watch  the  children  of  the  neighborhood  as 
they  passed  Rest  Cottage  on  their  way  to  school.  She  would  speak 
of  them  in  a  voice  of  infinite  tenderness  and  sympathy,  hoping  and 
praying  that  they  might  have  friends  in  their  youth  and  inexperi- 
ence, that  they  might  make  their  way  nobly  and  well  along  the 
intricate  path  of  life  and  into  a  safer  and  a  better  world.  Indeed, 
the  only  note  that  was  not  jubilant  in  all  the  many  keys  that  her 
varied  conversation  struck  was  when  she  talked  of  the  pitiful  little 
child  let  loose  in  this  great  grinding  mill  of  a  world. 

At  eighty-five  she  wrote  a  charming  bit  of  verse  which  has 
been  recited  all  over  the  world  by  the  little  soldiers  newly  mus- 
tered in,  to  fight  the  army  of  temptation  and  of  sin: 

"LITTLE  PEOPLE. 
"  The  world  will  be  what  you  make  it, 

Little  people; 
It  will  be  as  you  shape  it, 

Little  people. 

Then  be  studious  and  brave, 
And  your  country  help  to  save, 

Little  people. 

"  When  we  walk  into  the  gray, 
And  you  into  the  day, 

Little  people, 

We  will  beckon  you  along 
With  a  very  tender  song, 
Little  people. 

"  If  war  is  in  the  air, 
When  we  make  our  final  prayer, 

Little  people, 

We  will  pass  along  to  you 
All  the  work  we  tried  to  do, 

Little  people." 


A   GREAT  MOTHER  213 

In  Madam  Willard's  journal  of  her  last  year  we  find  these 
entries : 

1 '  I  am  not  I  until  that  morning  breaks, 
Not  I  until  my  consciousness  eternal  wakes." 

And  again  these  words  of  Victor  Hugo:  "I  am  rising,  I  know, 
toward  the  skies;  the  sunshine  is  on  my  head;  the  nearer  I 
approach  the  end  the  plainer  I  hear  around  me  the  immortal  sym- 
phonies of  the  worlds  which  invite  me." 

The  last  time  she  led  in  the  home  service  of  prayer  her  faith 
was  thus  expressed:  "We  walk  out  into  the  mystery  fearless 
because  we  trust  in  Thee;  we  face  the  great  emergency  with  our 
hearts  full  of  vital  questions  that  cannot  here  be  answered;  we 
leave  them  all  with  Thee,  knowing  that  Thou  wilt  cherish  our  wist- 
ful aspirations  toward  Him  who  lived  and  has  redeemed  us.  We 
would  know  many  things  that  Thou  hast  not  revealed,  but  we  can 
only  love  and  trust  and  wait." 

During  the  last  weeks  of  her  life  the  solar  heavenly  look  was 
ever  on  the  countenance  of  Saint  Courageous.  Those  who  stood 
closest  to  her  will  never  forget  the  sweet  joy  and  the  boundless 
anticipation  with  which  she  looked  forward  to  the  hour  when  she 
would  enter  into  immortal  life.  She  and  her  daughter  Frances 
talked  together  of  the  great  change  that  was  approaching.  With- 
out a  single  fear  or  tear  she  looked  forward  to  the  day  when  she 
should  pass  from  earth's  twilight  into  heaven's  morn  and  meet 
again  those  whom  she  had  ' '  loved  and  lost  awhile, "  lending  them 
to  God.  In  one  of  those  hours  her  daughter  thus  stated  her  belief 
as  to  the  problem  "  Does  death  end  all  ?  " 

' '  Suppose  a  man  should  build  a  ship  and  freight  it  with  the 
rarest  works  of  art,  and  in  the  very  building  and  the  freighting 
should  plan  to  convey  the  ship  out  into  midocean  and  there 
scuttle  it  with  all  its  contents!  And  here  is  the  human  body,  in 
itself  an  admirable  piece  of  mechanism,  the  most  delicate  and 
wonderful  of  which  we  know;  it  is  like  a  splendid  ship,  but  its 
cargo  incomparably  outruns  the  value  of  itself,  for  it  is  made  up 


214  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

of  love,  hope,  veneration,  imagination  and  all  the  largess  of  man's 
unconquerable  mind.  Why  should  its  Maker  scuttle  such  a  ship 
with  such  a  freightage?  He  who  believes  that  this  is  done  is 
capable  of  a  credulity  that  far  outruns  the  compass  of  our  faith. 
Death  cannot  be  an  evil  for  it  is  universal.  It  must  be  good  to 
those  that  do  good  because  it  crowns  man's  evolution  on  the  planet 
earth.  '  Lord,  we  can  trust  Thee  for  our  holy  dead. ' ' 

If  for  Mother  Willard  the  years  had  been  full  of  storm  and 
tumult,  these  contrasts  and  adversities  had  also  been  full  of  cul- 
ture. Unconsciously  she  was  herself  the  fulfillment  of  the  thought 
of  one  of  her  favorite  authors :  ' '  The  most  beautiful  thing  that  lives 
on  this  earth  is  not  the  child  in  the  cradle,  sweet  as  it  is.  It  is  not 
ample  enough.  It  has  not  had  history  enough.  It  is  all  prophesy. 
Let  me  see  one  who  has  walked  through  life;  let  me  see  a  great 
nature  that  has  gone  through  sorrow,  through  fire,  through  the 
flood,  through  the  thunder  of  life's  battle,  ripening,  sweetening, 
enlarging  and  growing  finer  and  finer  and  gentler  and  gentler,  that 
fineness  and  gentleness  being  the  result  of  great  strength  and  great 
knowledge  accumulated  through  a  long  life  —  let  me  see  such  a  one 
stand  at  the  end  of  life,  as  the  sun  stands  on  a  summer  afternoon 
just  before  it  goes  down.  Is  there  anything  on  earth  so  beautiful 
as  a  rich,  ripe,  large,  growing  and  glorious  Christian  heart?  No, 
there  is  nothing." 

It  was  the  going  from  life  of  such  a  mother  that  made  earth 
empty  and  the  heart  of  the  daughter  forever  bereaved.  Ever  after 
her  spirit  drooped;  a  part  of  Miss  Willard's  deeper  spiritual  self 
reached  out  toward  that  universe  to  which  from  the  moment  of  her 
mother's  departure  she  felt  she  too  belonged.  In  her  journal  we 
find  the  ever-recurring  eloquent  question,  "Where  is  my  mother?  " 
A  question  that  was  to  persistently  reiterate  itself  until  like  a  tired 
child  she  had  been  restored  to  her  mother's  arms.  Not  otherwise 
than  Monica  and  Saint  Augustine  did  these  two,  Saint  Courageous 
and  her  daughter  Frances,  sit  in  the  open  window  and  gaze  into  the 
open  sky  into  which  the  mother  was  soon  to  take  her  flight:  they 
saw  the  heavens  open  and  those  who  once  had  dwelt  within  their 


A   GREAT  MOTHER  215 

home,  standing  by  the  throne  of  God.  If  in  the  supreme  hour  of 
entrance  upon  the  life  with  God  the  mother  ascending  sent  bene- 
diction down  upon  her  daughter  and  upon  all  the  world,  the  daugh- 
ter gazing  into  the  open  sky  cried  out,  ' '  I  give  thee  joy,  my  mother! 
All  hail,  but  not  farewell.  Our  faces  are  set  the  same  way,  blessed 
mother:  I  shall  follow  after  —  it  will  not  be  long." 


CHAPTER  XI 

IN   THE    MOTHER    COUNTRY 

' '  The  many  make  the  household, 
But  only  one  the  home. ' ' 

IN  the  sunset  years  of  her  mother's  life  Miss  Willard  had  cen- 
tralized her  work  in  the  dear  home  now  adorned  by  count- 
less kindnesses  of  comrades  and  friends.  Picturing  the  busy 
hours  in  the  cozy  ' '  Den "  when  shut  in  with  that  serene  and 
benignant  being  ' '  Saint  Courageous, "  Miss  Willard  was  lifted 
above  her  former  toilsome  life,  we  are  reminded  of  her  journal 
note,  written  when  as  a  young  teacher  in  Kankakee,  she  mused  on 
the  home  faces  of  her  ' '  Four '' : 

' '  I  thank  God  for  my  mother  as  for  no  other  gift  of  His 
bestowing.  My  nature  is  so  woven  into  hers  that  I  almost  think 
it  would  be  death  for  me  to  have  the  bond  severed  and  one  so 
much  myself  gone  over  the  river.  She  does  not  know,  they  do 
not  any  of  them,  the  '  Four, '  how  much  my  mother  is  to  me,  for, 
as  I  verily  believe,  I  cling  to  her  more  than  ever  did  any  other  of 
her  children.  Perhaps  because  I  am  to  need  her  more." 

Surely  she  who  could  bear  and  train  such  a  daughter  was 
worthy  to  be  what  she  always  remained  —  her  inspiration  and  her 
ideal. 

Now  that  Frances  Willard  was  motherless,  Rest  Cottage  only 
"a  dumb  dwelling,"  hundreds  of  loyal  hearts  and  lovely  homes 
longed  to  shelter  and  console  her,  but  God  had  opened  an  English 
home,  a  gracious,  queenly  heart,  and  the  last  six  years  of  Miss 
Willard's  life  were  to  be  equally  divided  between  the  ' '  mother 
country  "  and  the  home  land.  The  origin  of  this  notable  friend- 

216 


IN  THE  MOTHER   COUNTRY  217 

ship,  which  was  to  mean  much  to  both  women  personally  as  well 
as  to  the  cause  they  represented  and  to  womanhood  in  England 
and  America,  is  thus  described  in  Lady  Henry  Somerset's  own 
words : 

' '  It  was  on  a  rainy  Sunday  some  twelve  years  ago  that  I  went 
down,  as  I  was  wont  to  do  when  alone  at  Eastnor  Castle,  to  have 
tea  with  my  capable  and  faithful  housekeeper.  We  often  spent  an 
hour  or  two  on  Sunday  afternoons  discussing  the  affairs  of  the  vil- 
lage and  the  wants  of  the  tenants,  among  whom  she  conducted 
mothers'  meetings  and  kept  the  accounts  of  the  women's  savings 
clubs.  I  saw  on  her  table  that  day  a  little  blue  book,  and  taking 
it  up,  read  for  the  first  time  the  title,  '  Nineteen  Beautiful  Years. ' 
Sitting  down  by  the  fire,  I  soon  became  so  engrossed  in  reading 
that  my  housekeeper  could  get  no  further  response  from  me.  that 
day,  nor  did  I  move  from  my  place  until  I  had  finished  the  little 
volume. 

' '  To  me  it  was  an  idyl  of  home  life  —  fresh,  peaceful  and  ten- 
der —  while  its  culmination  in  the  passing  of  that  pure  soul  was  a 
revelation  of  childlike  faith  that  left  me  '  nearer  heaven. '  The 
name  of  Frances  Willard  was  but  a  vague  outline  in  my  mind  until 
that  day.  The  Temperance  Reform  was  only  then  beginning  to 
unfold  its  lessons,  and  I  was  in  the  infant  class  of  its  great  world 
school;  but  from  the  hour  I  read  the  tribute  that  this  broken- 
hearted girl  of  twenty-two  had  laid  in  tears  and  loneliness  upon  her 
sister's  grave,  I  felt  the  spell  of  that  personality  which  has  meant 
so  much  to  women  the  world  over.  The  simplicity,  the  quaint 
candor,  and  the  delicate  touches  of  humor  and  pathos  with  which 
the  book  abounds,  brought  into  living  relief  the  character  of  one 
who  has  since  become  so  nearly  allied  to  me  in  our  mutual  work 
for  the  home  and  for  humanity.  Who  of  us  can  tell  the  unseen 
influences  that  guide  the  lives  of  those  who  stand  in  the  forefront 
of  the  battle,  and  who  may  know  the  counsels  that  determine  when 
those  bound  in  heart  shall  clasp  hands  in  high  endeavor  ?  Per- 
haps it  was  the  gentle  angel  who,  watching  over  the  destinies  of  her 
loved  sister,  sealed  the  friendship  that  unites  in  so  close  a  bond  the 


2i$  MEMORIAL  VOLUME 

great  band  of  women  in  two  continents  who  '  wage  their  peaceful 
war  for  God,  and  home  and  every  land. 

Mrs.  Hannah  Whitall  Smith,  author  of  "The  Christians 
Secret  of  a  Happy  Life, "  seems  to  have  been  the  connecting  link 
between  Lady  Henry  Somerset  and  the  British  Women's  Temper- 
ance Association.  They  had  never  met  when  Mrs.  Smith  went  to 
Ledbury,  the  seat  of  Eastnor  Castle,  to  give  a  series  of  Bible 
readings;  Lady  Henry  attended  the  meetings  and  invited  her  to 
her  home.  Here  they  communed  concerning  the  things  of  the 
kingdom,  and  after  Mrs.  Smith's  return  to  London,  as  she  sat  with 
the  committee  that  was  discussing  the  difficult  question  of  a  Presi- 
dent of  the  British  Women's  Temperance  Association,  to  succeed 
Mrs.  Margaret  Bright  Lucas  (sister  of  John  Bright),  there  came 
to  her  the  conviction  that  Lady  Henry  Somerset  was  the  God- 
ordained  woman  for  the  place.  She  announced  her  inspiration. 
Few  had  faith  that  she  would  accept  the  position,  and  at  first  Lady 
Henry  positively  declined,  but  Mrs.  Smith  presented  unanswerable 
arguments,  and  together  they  earnestly  prayed  for  guidance  from 
God.  Lady  Henry  then  promised  to  accept  the  leadership  of  the 
society  should  it  be  offered  her.  When  the  Association  met  in 
annual  council  a  few  weeks  later,  her  ladyship  was  unanimously 
elected,  and  in  response  to  a  telegram  came  to  the  convention 
and  accepted  the  honors  conferred  upon  her. 

Miss  Willard,  whose  vision  embraced  the  English-speaking 
world  as  her  field,  presaged  at  once  the  progressive  spirit  that  this 
valiant  and  exceptionally  equipped  president  of  the  British 
Women's  Temperance  Association  was  to  bring  to  the  White 
Ribbon  cause.  From  that  hour  the  desire  of  these  leaders  to 
meet  was  mutual,  and  the  centripetal  impulse  of  a  first  World's 
Convention  in  1891  brought  together  the  two  who  were  already 
one  in  the  new  concept  of  Christ's  Gospel  in  action. 

America,  New  England  and  Boston  first  (where  the  meeting 
was  held)  did  honor  to  the  noble  English  guest,  so  distinguished  in 
all  the  progressive  philanthropy  of  her  own  country.  After  the 
convention  Lady  Henry  Somerset  went  west  to  the  prairies  of 


IN  THE  MOTHER   COUNTRY  2i$ 

Illinois,  and  in  Rest  Cottage  received  the  benediction  of  "Saint 
Courageous, "  who  ' '  farther  on, "  as  she  saw  the  lights  in  her 
Heavenly  Father's  Home,  tenderly  said,  ' '  My  English  daughter 
has  lighted  up  the  whole  world  for  me  in  her  affection  for  my 
child." 

In  August,  1892,  three  weeks  after  Miss  Willard  lost  the 
earthly  presence  of  her  mother,  she  sailed  for  England  to  be  met 
by  sympathy,  thoughtfulness,  a  sustaining  love  and  care  which 
were  to  help  prolong  her  own  heroic  and  compassionate  life. 
"The  tears  would  just  well  up,"  she  writes  from  Eastnor  Castle 
in  the  first  weeks  of  her  grief.  This  heart  that  had  brooded  over 
the  sorrows  of  so  many  was  realizing  the  supreme  experience  of 
the  daily  longing  for  the  most  intimate  of  her  life's  companion- 
ships. 

On  the  first  birthday  anniversary  without  her  mother,  Sep- 
tember 28,  1893,  the  British  Women's  Temperance  Association, 
through  Lady  Henry,  sent  an  offering  of  flowers  and  this  testi- 
monial: 

' '  To  Frances  E.  Willard,  President  of  the  World's  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union: 

"Beloved  President,  —  The  sadness  that  enshrouds  your  com- 
ing to  our  country  forbids  any  demonstration  of  national  welcome; 
yours  is  a  loss  in  which  each  of  us  have  a  share;  with  you  we 
mourn  a  mother  who  by  a  long  life  of  courage  and  triumphant 
entry  into  Eternity  has  taught  us  that  it  is  *  always  better 
farther  on.' 

' '  We  cannot,  however,  refrain  on  this,  the  anniversary  of  your 
birth,  tenderly  to  wish  you  many  years  rich  and  fall  of  useful  labor. 
In  approaching  you  with  our  congratulations  it  is  on  no  common- 
place errand  of  courtesy  that  we  come,  nor  do-  our  good  wishes 
spring  solely  from  our  love  and  gratitude.  We  Jay  this  tribute  in 
your  hands  because  from  you  we  have  received  the  message  of 
women's  greatness;  because,  looking  back  on  the  story  of  the  past, 
we  see  none  other  to  whom  her  fellow-women  should  confess  so 
large  a  debt;  because  we  know  that  life  and  strength  to  you  will 


220  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

ever  mean  priceless  and  unflinching  toil  in  the  cause  which  seeks 
to  bring  humanity  nearer  its  divine  ideal.  Your  great  heart,  which 
knows  no  limitations  of  creed,  class,  or  nation,  but  beats  only  with 
the  pulsations  of  humanity,  has  thrown  out  the  life  line  of  the 
White  Ribbon,  and  today  it  girds  the  world,  fit  emblem  of  the  white 
light  of  truth  that  called  it  into  radiant  existence.  You  have  stood 
for  the  forces  which  level  up  and  not  down;  your  life  shall  chant 
itself  in  its  own  beatitudes  after  your  own  life's  service,  for  you 
have  understood  the  divine  motherhood  that  has  made  the  world 
your  family." 

In  another  letter  from  Miss  Willard  we  have  the  picture  of  the 
tranquil  days  passed  at  Eastnor  Castle  in  retirement  and  work  for 

the  annual  convention  at  home "  We  are  keeping 

very  quiet  here  at  the  Castle,  seeing  no  one.  We  are  receiving 
shoals  of  letters  that  come  to  us  from  all  parts  of  the  Kingdom  as 
well  as  from  '  Home,  sweet  home. '  .  For  myself  I  am 

not  very  vigorous,  but  am  grinding  away  at  my  annual  address, 
though  with  but  little  enthusiasm  since  mother  is  not  here." 

Two  months  later  Miss  Willard  was  again  on  American  soil  in 
attendance  upon  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U.  Convention  at  Denver, 
Colorado,  where  a  memorial  service  for  her  mother  welded  anew 
the  hearts  of  her  loyal  constituents.  Lady  Henry  accompanied 
.her  guest,  Miss  Willard  returning  with  her  to  England  in  Novem- 
ber. The  succeeding  weeks,  which  were  filled  with  public  work, 
were  marked  by  a  great  welcome  meeting  at  Exeter  Hall  in  honor 
of  the  Founder  and  President  of  the  World's  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  Union.  Lady  Henry  Somerset,  as  vice-president  of 
this  organization  and  hostess  of  Miss  Willard,  had  issued  invi- 
tations far  and  wide,  calling  upon  all,  irrespective  of  creed  or  sex, 
to  come  and  do  honor  to  her  beloved  friend,  and  in  response  a 
remarkable  gathering  assembled.  Five  thousand  people  united  in 
this  welcome;  not  only  leaders  of  the  principal  English  humani- 
tarian organizations  of  the  day,  members  of  Parliament  and  London 
County  Councilors,  but  a  homogeneous  company  of  representatives 
of  missions,  leagues,  unions,  societies  and  guilds,  over  fifty  of  these 


IN  THE  MOTHER    COUNTRY  221 

groups  being  represented.  Miss  Willard  was  greeted  with  an 
ovation,  the  "audience  and  platform  rising  en  masse,  waving 
handkerchiefs,  and  giving  three  British  cheers  in  a  manner  which, 
with  all  their  enthusiasm,  ho  American  audience  has  as  yet 
mastered,  for  it  takes  the  burly  form  and  the  broad  chest  of  John 
Bull  to  cheer  in  the  lusty  fashion  of  our  Saxon  and  Viking 
ancestry. "  Lady  Henry  presided,  and  in  an  eloquent  address  of 
welcome  presented  the  woman  and  the  work  they  had  gathered  to 
honor.  She  said: 

"It  is  fitting  that  this  historic  hall  should  have  been  chosen 
as  the  scene  of  a  welcome  to  one  who  above  all  other  titles  deserves 
that  of  Reformer.  Wherever  the  temperance  cause  has  a  cham- 
pion, wherever  the  cause  of  social  purity  has  an  exponent,  wherever 
the  labor  movement  lifts  up  its  voice,  wherever  woman  with  the 
sunlight  of  the  glad  new  day  upon  her  face  stretches  forth  her 
hands  to  God,  there  is  the  name  of  Frances  Willard  loved,  cher- 
ished and  revered.  Tried  by  a  jury  of  her  peers  —  even  amid  the 
clashing  opinions  of  this  transition  age  where  the  old  is  unwilling 
to  die,  and  the  new  seems  hardly  ready  to  be  born  —  there  would 
still  come  the  verdict,  she  is  a  fair  opponent,  she  is  a  kindly  com- 
rade ;  as  Lincoln  said,  she  has  '  firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gives 
her  to  see  the  right,  and  moves  along  her  chosen  path  with  malice 
toward  none  and  charity  for  all.'  From  that  more  august  and 
perhaps  impartial  jury,  beyond  the  circle  of  reform,  comes  the  ver- 
dict prophetic  of  that  which  history  shall  one  day  record — she 
made  the  world  wider  for  women  and  happier  for  humanity. 

"We  know  that  America  owes  her  greatness  to  the  sterling 
worth  of  those  intrepid  Puritan  pioneers  who  were  the  best  gift  of 
the  old  world  to  the  new ;  so  Frances  Willard,  who  has  in  her  veins 
that  pure  New  England  blood,  owes  to  her  ancestry  much  of  the 
strength  and  courage  that  must  ever  be  the  basis  of  a  reformer's 
character. 

"If  no  other  work  had  been  accomplished,  one  of  the  greatest 
achievements  of  Frances  Willard's  life  has  been  her  mission  of 
reconciliation  to  the  women  of  the  South  while  yet  the  scars  of  war 


222  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

throbbed  in  their  breasts,  and  new-made  graves  stretched  wide 
between  sections  that  had  learned  the  misery  of  hatred.  It  was 
the  white  ribbon  taken  by  her  tender  hands  that  bound  these 
wounds  and  gently  drew  the  noble-hearted  women  of  that  sunny 
land  into  the  hospitable  home  circle  of  the  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  Union. 

' '  '  Sacrifice  is  the  foundation  of  all  real  success, '  and  it  was  a 
crucial  moment  in  Miss  Willard's  life  when  she  deliberately  relin- 
quished the  brilliant  position  of  dean  of  the  first  woman's  college 
connected  with  a  university  in  America,  to  go  out  penniless,  alone 
and  unheralded,  because  her  spirit  had  caught  the  rhythm  of  the 
women's  footsteps  as  they  bridged  the  distance  between  the  home 
and  the  saloon  in  the  Pentecostal  days  of  the  temperance  crusade. 
She  has  relinquished  that  which  women  hold  the  dearest  —  the 
sacred,  sheltered  life  of  home.  For  her  no  children  wait  around 
the  Christmas  hearth,  but  she  has  lost  that  life  only  to  find  it  again 
ten  thousand  fold.  She  has  understood  the  mystery  of  the  wider 
circle  of  love  and  loyalty,  and  the  world  is  her  home  as  truly  as 
John  Wesley  said  it  was  his  parish.  She  has  understood  the  divine 
motherhood  that  claims  the  orphaned  hearts  of  humanity  for  her 
heritage,  and  a  chorus  of  children's  voices  around  the  world  hail 
her  as  mother,  for  organized  mother-love  is  the  best  definition  of 
the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union. 

' '  '  Live  and  take  comfort ;  thou  wilt  leave  behind 

Powers  that  will  work  for  thee  — 

Air,  earth  and  skies. 
There's  not  a  breathing  of  the  common  wind 

That  will  forget  thee  ;  thou  hast  great  allies  ; 

Thy  friends  are  exultations,  agonies, 
And  love  and  man's  unconquerable  mind.' 

' '  In  honor  of  such  a  guest  we  have  gathered  our  choicest 
flowers  of  rhetoric  and  birds  of  song,  for  it  is  good  and  true  to  pour 
out  the  fragrance  of  our  affection  and  our  praise,  and  place  our 
tribute  in  the  warm  clasp  of  living  hands  rather  than  lay  it  on  the 
cold  marble  of  the  tomb." 


IN  THE  MOTHER    COUNTRY  223 

Before  resuming  her  seat  the  chairman  called  upon  the  Rev. 
Canon  Wilberforce  to  give  the  first  greeting  to  Miss  Willard 
because  he  knew  something  of  the  work  she  has  accomplished,  and 
his  visit  to  America  had  given  him  an  insight  into  the  power  and 
strength  of  women's  work  there,  and  Canon  Wilberforce  then 
dashed  into  an  earnest  temperance  appeal  and  offered  Miss 
Willard  a  hearty  welcome  in  the  name  of  the  Church  of  England 
Temperance  Reformers. 

The  crowd  driven  back  from  the  doors  had  flocked  down  the 
staircase  and  filled  to  overflowing  a  small  hall  capable  of  holding 
some  fifteen  hundred  people.  Here  the  eloquent  Canon,  followed 
quickly  by  Madame  Antoinette  Stirling,  retired  to  keep  them  in 
patience  until  Miss  Willard  and  Lady  Henry  Somerset  had  com- 
«pleted  their  duties  upstairs. 

After  nearly  a  score  of  welcome  speeches,  at  half-past  nine 
Miss  Willard  rose,  and  in  swift,  generous  utterance  responded  to 
the  sincere  British  enthusiasm  expressed  in  genial  phrases:  "The 
English, "  she  said,  ' '  as  individuals  are  reticent,  but  as  an  audience 
they  bloom  at  you  like  a  garden  bed."  In  the  glow  of  this 
sympathy  her  sensitive  spirit  was  at  once  at  home,  and  she  took 
into  her  heart  for  aye  her  English  audiences.  "  I  do  not  know, " 
she  said,  ' '  that  I  was  ever  more  pleased  than  I  am  tonight  that  I 
can  trace  my  undiluted  ancestry  back  nine  generations  to  an  honest 
yeoman  of  Kent.  '  Brave  hearts  from  Severn  and  from  Clyde  and 
from  the  banks  of  Shannon, '  I  come  to  you  from  the  Mississippi 
valley,  and  in  that  '  whispering  corn '  of  which  my  beloved  friend 
and  our  great  leader  has  spoken,  I  used  to  sit  on  my  little  four-legged 
wooden  cricket,  hidden  away  that  nobody  should  know,  reading  out 
of  poets  and  philosophers  things  that  caused  me  to  believe  more 
than  I  knew,  and  I  do  it  yet.  I  do  not  know  that  Prohibition  will 
capture  old  England,  and  salt  it  down  with  the  '  inviolate  sea '  as  a 
boundary  —  but  I  believe  it  will.  I  do  not  know  that  the  strong 
hand  of  labor  will  ever  grasp  the  helm  of  State  —  but  I  believe  it 
will.  I  do  not  know  that  the  double  standard  in  the  habitudes  of 
life  for  men  and  women  will  be  exchanged  for  a  white  life  for  two 


224  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

on  the  part  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  —  but  I  believe  it  will.  I  do 
not  know  that  women  will  bless  and  brighten  every  place  they 
enter,  and  that  they  will  enter  every  place  —  but  I  believe  they  will. 
[Cheers.  ]  The  welcome  of  their  presence  and  their  power  is  to 
be  the  touchstone. 

"On  a  green  hill  far  away  was  the  great  scene  of  history 
where,  on  a  wide-armed  cross,  was  lifted  up  that  Figure  whose 
radiant  love,  shining  out  through  all  the  generations  since,  has 
brought  you  and  me  together;  given  us  our  blessed  temperance 
reform;  is  lifting  labor  to  its  throne  of  power;  has  made  men  so 
mild  that  they  are  willing  to  let  women  share  the  world  along  with 
them.  And  that  reminds  me  that  I  wanted  to  speak  a  word  about 
the  gentle  Czar.  Have  you  ever  heard  of  him  —  the  gentle  Czar? 
This  one  of  whom  I  speak  had  at  one  time  absolute  power.  He 
dwelt  in  his  own  world,  woman  was  his  vassal ;  she  could  not  help 
herself,  and  had  not  wit  enough  perhaps  to  want  to  do  so.  But 
behold,  the  Czar  said:  'Since  woman  has  a  brain,  it  is  God's  token 
that  she  should  sit  down  with  her  brother  at  the  banquet  of 
Minerva. '  •  So  you  invited  us  to  school  and  then  we  came  tripping 
along  like  singing  birds  after  a  thunderstorm.  No  vote  except 
that  of  this  hydra-headed  Czar  ever  opened  a  school  for  women 
to  get  their  brains  nurtured  and  cultured.  I  read  that  in  Edin- 
burgh (which  classic  city  I  hope  to  visit  in  a  week  or  two),  the 
trustees  had,  by  order  of  this  Czar,  invited  women  to  join  the  Col- 
lege of  Arts,  and  instead  of  the  young  men  being  crusty  about  it 
they  were  received  with  loud  huzzas.  In  my  own  country,  in  some 
of  the  States  and  towns,  the  women  have  the  municipal  ballot; 
they  have  it  under  restriction  in  England.  Who  gave  it  to  them  ? 
The  gentle  Czar.  The  Barons  at  Runnymede  had  to  force  their 
charter  from  King  John,  but  the  baronesses  of  this  age  have  but 
to  say:  'Would  not  you  like  to  come  and  help  us?'  and  the  gentle 
Czar  extends  his  scepter,  when  lo !  the  doors  are  opened  wide.  So 
I  have  no  quarrel  with  men,  and  I  have  two  reasons  for  thinking 
that  they  have  been  full  of  wisdom  in  letting  us  into  the  kingdom, 


•EAGLE'S  NEST,"  THE  CATSKILLS,  N.  Y.  EASTNOR  CASTLE,  REDBURY,  ENGLAND. 

REST  COTTAGE,  EVANSTON,  ILL. 
REST  COTTAGE,  QARDEN  VIEW.  THE  PRIORY,  REIGATE,  ENGLAND. 


IN  THE  MOTHER   COUNTRY  225 

for  we  want  a  fair  division  of  the  world  into  two  equal  parts. 
Please  take  notice,  an  undivided  half  is  what  the  women  want; 
they  do  not  want  to  go  off  and  set  up  for  themselves  and  take  their 
half,  but  to  let  it  remain  for  evermore  an  undivided  half.  I  believe 
men  have  let  us  into  the  kingdom  because  they  have  had  six 
thousand  years  of  experience,  and  consider  themselves  tolerably 
capable  of  taking  care  of  number  one.  [Cheers.]  In  the  second 
place,  I  think  that  they  are  well  assured  in  their  own  spirits  that 
nobody  living  is  quite  so  interested  to  do  them  justice,  and  to 
look  after  them  in  a  very  motherly  way  as  these  very  women  folk! 
There  is  between  us  but  one  great  river  of  blood,  one  great  battery 
of  brain  —  our  interests  are  forever  indivisible,  for  every  woman 
that  I  ever  knew  was  some  man's  daughter  and  every  man  I  ever 
saw  was  some  woman's  son,  and  most  of  the  men  that  I  have  been 
associated  with  in  Christian  work  were  '  mother's  boys. '  That  is 
the  best  kind  of  a  boy,  whether  he  belongs  to  the  children  of  a 
greater  growth  or  whether  he  is  still  in  the  bewildered  period  of 
the  first  and  second  decades. 

' '  Some  people  have  said  that  the  '  Do  Everything '  policy  is  a 
'  scatteration '  policy ;  but  I  am  willing  to  sink  or  swim,  live  or  die, 
survive  or  perish  under  the  working  of  the  '  Do  Everything '  pol- 
icy. By  this  we  mean  what  they  did  at  the  Battle  of  the  Boyne — 
'  Whenever  you  see  a  head  hit  it. '  Wherever  the  liquor  traffic  is 
intrenched,  there  put  in  an  appearance  and  send  out  the  ammuni- 
tion of  your  Catling  gun  rattling  its  fires  along  the  entire  field. 
That  has  been  our  method  from  the  beginning.  The  liquor  traffic 
is  intrenched  in  the  customs  of  society  —  go  out  after  it,  then, 
with  the  pledge  of  total  abstinence  for  others'  sake.  The  liquor 
traffic  is  protected  by  the  people's  ignorance  —  go  after  it  into  the 
Sunday  schools  and  public  schools  with  a  '  Thus  saith  Nature,  thus 
saith  Reason,  thus  saith  the  Lord.'  The  liquor  traffic  is  safe- 
guarded by  the  law  —  go  after  it  into  legislature  and  parliament, 
and  give  them  no  rest  for  the  soles  of  their  feet  till  they  give 
you  better  law  than  you  have  yet  achieved.  But  laws  are  made 

15 


226  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

by  men,  not«  by  abstractions,  and  men  are  elected  by  parties. 
Then  do  not  be  the  least  afraid,  but  go  out  among  the  parties  and 
see  which  of  them  will  take  up  your  cause  and  then  stick  to  that 
one.  Parties  are  built  up  from  units  of  humanity,  and  they  need 
a  stronger  contingent  of  moral  power.  Let  us,  then,  bring  that 
contingent  to  the  front;  bring  up  the  home  guards  and  add  them 
to  the  army.  There  are  two  serpents,  intemperance  and  impurity, 
that  have  inclosed  and  are  struggling  with  the  infant  Hercules  of 
Christian  civilization,  Let  us  strike  at  both,  for  purity  and  total 
abstinence  must  go  together:  the  two  must  rise  or  fall  together; 
and  when  we  find  that  the  Siamese  twins  of  civilization  are  purity 
and  total  abstinence,  when  we  find  that  we  must  foster  both,  or 
each  will  die,  then  we  shall  have  widened  our  cause  as  God  wants 
to  see  it  widened. 

1 '  Alcoholized  brains  are  like  colored  glass.  We  cannot  trans- 
mit the  light  of  the  truth  unless  we  are  under  the  power  of  that 
holy  habit  —  sobriety.  May  every  home  that  you  love  be  the 
home  of  peace;  may  every  life  that  you  cherish  escape  the  curse 
of  drink;  may  every  child  that  you  left  tonight  when  coming  to 
this  meeting  grow  up  sweet  and  pure  and  true.  May  every  man 
that  has  lent  to  us  his  attention  at  this  hour  belong  to  the  great 
army  of  the  gentle  Czar  who  is  willing  to  welcome  women  even  to 
the  throne  room  of  government. 

' '  '  Strike,  till  the  last  armed  foe  expires, 
Strike  for  your  altars  and  your  fires! 
Strike  for  the  green  graves  of  your  sires! 
God  and  your  native  land! '  ' 

[Loud  cheers.  ] 

Quaint,  humorous,  reminiscent  and  prophetic,  Miss  Willard, 
with  womanly  tenderness,  took  her  listeners  back  into  her  sacred 
home  life,  pregnant  with  association  and  inspiration,  and  with 
statesmanlike  vigor  out  into  the  universal  life  of  human  need  and 
aspiration. 

Lady  Henry  Somerset  then  addressed  Miss  Willard,  saying: 


IN  THE  MOTHER   COUNTRY  227 

' '  We  cannot  detain  you  to  listen  to  all  the  telegrams  from  indi- 
viduals and  from  the  branches  of  the  British  Women's  Temperance 
Association  by  which  Old  England  greets  New  England's  daughter. 
Three  hundred  branches  of  the  British  Women's  Temperance  Asso- 
ciation have  sent  their  greetings ;  every  post  has  brought  their  loyal 
welcome,  and  their  names  are  recorded  upon  this  testimonial  which 
the  British  women  gladly  present  to  you.  This  beautiful  banner 
has  been  embroidered  by  the  loyal  hands  of  British  women,  and  we 
beg  your  acceptance  of  it  that  it  may  grace  the  platforms  of  Amer- 
ica and  remind  you  there  of  your  English  sisters. " 

The  London  Times  devoted  considerable  space  to  a  report  of 
what  it  was  forced  to  admit  was  a  "remarkable  spectacle";  while 
the  Daily  News,  organ  of  the  Liberal  party,  said:  "Miss  Willard 
has  perfect  command  of  eloquence  which  is  unadorned,  and  her 
quaint  Americanisms,  homely  practicability  and  quiet  earnestness 
have  a  wonderful  effect  upon  the  audience.  She  established  sympa- 
thetic relations  with  them  at  once  and  her  response  was  a  wonderful 
combination  of  dry  humor  and  common  sense.  The  demonstration, 
from  first  to  last,  was  a  magnificent  success." 

The  Exeter  Hall  meeting  awoke  England  from  Ramsgate  to 
the  Isle  of  the  Dogs,  and  countless  invitations  poured  in  urging 
Miss  Willard  to  meet  great  audiences  and  illustrious  statesmen. 
The  cities  of  England  seemed  to  unite  in  the  request  that  she 
should  visit  each  of  them.  It  would  be  but  a  repetition  of  occa- 
sions similar  to  that  of  Exeter  Hall  if  we  were  to  follow  her  from 
city  to  city  as  she  was  welcomed  at  great  meetings  and  enthusiastic 
receptions.  Already  the  physicians  who  had  been  consulted  in 
regard  to  her  physical  condition  insisted  that  absolute  rest  was 
imperative  for  the  restoration  of  her  strength,  and  slowly  there  was 
wrought  in  the  quiet  and  beauty  of  Lady  Henry's  own  home  a 
marvelous  change.  Beautiful  and  invigorating  days  were  spent 
in  Switzerland  in  the  Engardine.  The  air  and  altitude  were  a 
delight  to  Miss  Willard's  spirit  and  brought  with  each  day  increased 
buoyancy  of  mind  and  body. 

During  the  World's  Fair  in  1893  Lady  Henry  Somerset  came 


228  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

to  America,  assuming  heavy  burdens  connected  with  the  World's 
and  National  Conventions  in  Chicago,  in  order  that  Miss  Willard 
might  recuperate  in  the  restfulness  of  retired  English  life.  The 
American  leader  was  meanwhile  the  guest  of  Mrs.  Hannah  Whitall 
Smith  at  Haslemere,  and  writes  to  the  Union  Signal : 

"DEAR  SISTERS,  —  During  the  absence  of  Lady  Henry  Somer- 
set and  Anna  Gordon,  I  am  most  kindly  cared  for  by  my  long-time 
friends,  Robert  and  Hannah  Smith,  and  am  penciling  this  letter 
'up  a  tree.' 

' '  We  know  that  when  Buddha  made  '  the  great  renunciation, ' 
he  went  alone  and  sat  under  a  '  Bo  tree '  until  he  entered  into  the 
Nirvana  of  complete  renunciation  of  the  world. 

' '  So  when  my  host,  with  thoughts  of  quiet  hours  in  the  even- 
ing of  his  life,  sought  separation  from  the  bustle  of  a  large  house- 
hold, he  selected  a  great  oak  tree  in  the  front  of  the  upper  portion 
of  the  woods  at  his  country  seat  in  Surrey,  and  building  spiral 
rustic  stairs  around  its  trunk,  he  made,  about  twenty-five  feet  up  in 
the  tree,  a  '  House  in  the  Garden '  and  called  the  oak  a  '  Bo  tree. ' 
This  retreat  from  the  world  is  eight  by  sixteen  feet,  faced  all 
around  and  on  top  with  glass,  and  floored  with  boards  arranged 
like  an  opened  fan,  with  the  tree  trunk  as  a  center.  Here  are 
rustic  chairs  and  a  fur-covered  lounge,  and  I  am  writing,  this  beau- 
tiful sunny  October  day,  before  the  large  open  window,  looking  over 
the  tops  of  the  trees  extending  for  a  mile  down  into  the  valley,  and 
beyond  this  a  finely  wooded,  beautiful  country  to  the  '  downs '  or 
hills,  twenty  miles  away,  which  overlook  the  English  Channel. 

' '  Goethe  well  said,  '  In  the  tops  of  the  trees  there  is  rest, '  and 
rest  more  perfect,  more  complete,  could  scarcely  be  found  or  con- 
ceived of  in  any  earthly  outward  surroundings.  It  is  the  glory  of 
Scripture  that  its  words  have  so  many  meanings,  deeper  and  deeper 
as  we  are  able  to  see  more,  our  '  views '  being  merely  what  we,  at 
this  point  of  our  experience,  are  able  to  see;  and  here  has  been 
given  me  a  deeper  meaning  of  the  words,  'And  when  he  had  come 
to  himself.'  Is  it  not  true  that  even  in  our  work  for  the  Master, 
amid  all  our  activities,  we  come  to  many  things  before  we  can  say, 


IN  THE  MOTHER  COUNTRY  229 

'  I  have  come  to  myself. '  Whichever  of  many  varying  meanings 
this  may  have  to  my  comrades,  when  it  is  true  to  them  inwardly 
they,  like  their  '  elder  sister, '  will  each  one  exclaim  with  a  new  and 
deeper  meaning,  '  I  will  arise  and  go  unto  my  Father. ' 

' '  In  this  soothing,  inspiring  sunshine,  sitting  all  alone,  behold- 
ing the  delectable  mountains,  the  varying  shadows  of  the  light 
clouds  chasing  each  other  over  the  hills,  and  the  miles  of  calm  tree 
tops  beneath  my  window,  the  morning  passes,  then  the  lunch  bell 
rings;  then  comes  my  daily  three  hours'  drive,  my  faithful  little 
stenographer,  Edith  Goode,  my  dinner,  and  —  can  you  believe  it  ? 
at  the  early  hour  of  eight  —  my  bed.  I  believe  that  by  these  days 
of  mingled  work  and  deep  immersion  in  the  quiet  of  nature  I  am 
regaining  life  and  health  for  my  place  among  the  workers  of  my 
native  land.  With  every  pulse  of  returning  health  and  energy  my 
heart  beats  with  longing  to  be  once  more  among  them. 

' '  This  beautiful  home  is  named  '  Friday's  Hill, '  a  name 
thought  to  have  originally  been  '  Freya's  Hill, '  the  same  as  Ceres, 
the  goddess  of  increase,  and  here  it  is  supposed  that  in  Druidical 
days  the  religious  heathen  gathered  to  their  human  sacrifices.  We 
have  a  better  altar  and  a  better  sacrifice,  not  of  death,  but  of  life 
and  all  it  contains,  to  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. 

"  I  do  not  need  to  say  that  my  heart,  hopes  and  prayers  have 
been  with  you  in  the  great  conventions.  As  yet  no  word  has  come 
except  the  beautiful  and  loving  cable  messages,  but  we  look  for 
'  Lady  Henry's  ship '  on  Tuesday  next,  and  Anna's  but  a  few  days 
later,  and  then  we  shall  know  all.  Tender  greetings  from  'our 
Hannah.'  God  bless  you  all!  FRANCES  E.  WILLARD. 

"  Haslemere,  Eng.,  October  28,  1893." 

In  the  months  following,  as  her  strength  increased,  Miss 
Willard  not  only  helped  the  World's  work  and  notably  the  British 
branch,  but  kept  in  close  touch  with  the  work  at  home,  and  with 
Lady  Henry  did  a  vast  amount  of  public  speaking  in  England  and 
Scotland.  We  give  as  current  history  this  account  from  the  press: 
' '  Both  ladies  (Miss  Willard  and  Lady  Henry)  are  entering  into  the 


230  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

work  with  great  zeal,  and  have  in  several  of  our  large  towns  evoked 
an  enthusiasm  which  has  not  been  witnessed  for  many  years.  The 
temperance  movement  has  at  different  times  drawn  to  itself  a  great 
deal  of  public  attention.  On  more  than  one  occasion  it  has  seemed 
to  carry  with  it  the  promise  of  victory;  but  great  activity  has  been 
followed  by  feebler  effort,  and  by  diminished  zeal.  At  one  time  it 
has  been  said  the  movement  has  been  too  political,  at  another  too 
sensational,  at  another  that  it  has  depended  too  much  upon  indi- 
vidual effort,  while  occasionally  it  has  been  said  that  the  chief 
object  has  been  the  substantial  rewards  which  have  been  reaped  by 
those  who  have  been  the  popular  advocates  of  the  cause.  There 
can  be  little  doubt  that  these  charges  have  sometimes  been  unjustly 
made ;  but  they  have,  at  any  rate,  taught  temperance  workers  a  few 
lessons  which  are  worth  considering.  No  doubt  blunders  have 
been  made,  false  steps  have  now  and  then  been  taken;  but  on  the 
whole  it  must  be  admitted  that  good  work  has  been  done,  and  that 
in  many  places  a  decided  change  has  been  brought  about  in  the 
habits  of  the  people.  At  the  outset,  temperance  reformers  did  not 
receive  much  help  from  the  more  educated  classes,  or  from  those 
who  occupied  good  positions  in  society.  The  earliest  and  most 
successful  workers  were  men  of  religious  conviction  and  purpose. 
They  laid  the  foundations  of  whatever  measure  of  success  has 
since  been  attained.  Among  the  churches  there  were  two  denom- 
inations especially  that  gave  prominence  to  temperance  teaching 
more  than  fifty  years  ago:  these  were  the  Primitive  Methodists, 
who  labored  chiefly  in  the  North  of  England,  and  the  Bible  Chris- 
tians, whose  activities  were  chiefly  confined  to  the  southern  and 
western  counties.  It  is  now  a  general  thing  to  hold  temperance 
meetings  in  connection  with  all  church  assemblies,  but  at  the  time 
of  which  I  am  writing  this  practice  was  confined  almost  entirely  to 
the  two  denominations  I  have  referred  to.  Lady  Henry  Somerset 
and  Miss  Willard  are,  in  an  important  degree,  leading  temperance 
reformers  back  to  the  ground  which  they  originally  occupied.  They 
have  insisted  that  the  aims  and  methods  of  the  associations  with 
which  they  are  connected  shall  be  thoroughly  Christian.  It  must, 


IN  THE  MOTHER  COUNTRY  231 

of  course,  be  admitted,  and  in  this  letter  it  is  gladly  acknowledged, 
that  there  have  been  among  those  who  have  not  held  the  Christian 
faith  not  a  few  earnest  temperance  workers.  But  if  appeals  are  to 
be  made  of  the  most  searching  and  convincing  character,  they  must 
be  appeals  founded  upon  Christian  experience.  The  Bible  is  the 
temperance  handbook,  and  those  who  seek  to  do  temperance  work 
will  derive  the  greatest  inspiration  from  a  study  of  its  pages.  The 
temperance  movement  needs  the  guiding  light  of  Christianity;  it 
needs  the  enthusiasm  also  which  alone  can  be  kindled  by  a  con- 
scious fellowship  with  its  spirit  and  teaching. 

' '  Lady  Henry  Somerset  and  Miss  Willard  are  also  resolved  to 
do  battle  against  impurity,  gambling  and  profanity.  There  is  no 
moral  condition  worse  than  that  in  which  a  man  or  a  woman  is  saved 
from  one  form  of  evil  only  to  surrender  the  nature  more  fully  to 
another.  Gambling  is  one  of  the  greatest  evils  in  England  at  the 
present  time.  True  temperance  means  purity  in  every  direction, 
and  of  this  Lady  Henry  Somerset  and  Miss  Willard  are  thoroughly 
convinced.  They  are  stimulating  not  only  the  temperance  women 
of  England,  but  the  men  also,  to  put  forth  their  best  exertions  to 
make  this  country  a  sober  and  righteous  nation.  There  remains, 
however,  one  thing  which  must  be  done,  and  with  this  all  temper- 
ance reformers  will  agree.  The  law  of  the  land,  in  regard  to  the 
granting  of  licenses  and  the  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks,  must  be 
altered.  At  the  present  an  irresponsible  body  of  men,  called 
justices  of  the  peace,  have  the  power  to  thrust  upon  an  unwilling 
people  licensed  houses  which  are  not  needed  and  are  not  asked  for. 
And  if,  as  has  been  the  case  in  a  few  rare  instances,  the  magistrates 
have  determined  to  lessen  the  temptation  to  wrongdoing,  and  so 
help  those  who  need  protection,  the  local  authority  has  been  over- 
ruled by  the  chairman  of  Quarter  Sessions.  Flagrant  instances 
of  this  kind  have  been  known  in  the  County  of  Lancashire,  and  in 
regard  to  the  action  of  the  Darwen  Bench.  It  is  high  time  the 
people  made  short  work  with  an  iniquity  of  this  kind.  So  temper- 
ance people  will  have  to  be  determined  in  choosing  town  councilors, 
county  councilors,  and  above  all,  members  of  Parliament,  to  vote 


only  for  those  candidates  who  are  favorable  to  the  principle  of  local 
option.  Unless  the  people  can  gain  their  point  in  this  matter,  much 
labor  put  forth  in  other  directions  will  be  spent  in  vain.  So  long 
as  public  houses  are  kept  open  and  licenses  are  granted  in  the  way 
they  are,  will  Christian  and  temperance  efforts  be  again  and  again 
checked  and  hindered.  The  temperance  question  is  now  what  it 
was  in  the  days  of  Cobden,  the  most  important  social  question  of 
the  hour.  If  temperance  can  be  fairly  grappled  with  and  over- 
come, the  question  *  how  to  improve  the  trade  of  the  country '  will 
be  successfully  answered,  and  what  is  more,  we  shall  then  see  how 
this  nation  may  not  only  be  great,  but  also  just  and  true  as  well. " 

During  Miss  Willard's  sojourn  in  England  the  suggestive  and 
instructive  points  in  its  organizations  and  institutions,  especially 
their  expression  in  woman's  life  and  work,  vitally  interested  her. 
As  the  guest  of  Lady  Henry  Somerset,  opportunities  to  study  their 
prominent  phases  and  characteristics  were  many  and  varied.  To 
attend  political  conventions  in  which  men  and  women  were  equally 
interested  was  to  her  a  novel  experience;  English  methods  of  elec- 
tion were  an  absorbing  study,  but  the  most  inspiring  phenomenon 
was  the  place  of  prominence  given  to  women  in  political  life. 

With  great  stirring  of  spirit  she  thus  describes  a  convention  of 
the  Woman's  Liberal  Federation: 

"Nowhere  on  the  face  of  the  earth  have  women  organized 
with  so  much  strength,  skill  and  devotion  to  forward  beneficent 
political  movements  as  in  the  mother  country.  Seventy-five  thou- 
sand of  them  are  banded  in  the  Woman's  Liberal  Federation  for 
the  purpose  of  advancing  the  interest  of  that  great  party  which  has 
for  many  years  been  '  casting  up  the  highway '  of  emancipation  by 
which  England  shall  pass  over  into  the  promised  land  of  liberty, 
equality,  fraternity.  Mrs.  Gladstone  has  been  from  the  first  presi- 
dent of  this  organization,  and  as  an  educator  for  women  it  has  no 
rival  in  the  island;  for  successes,  and  failures,  too,  are  teaching  the 
women  that  only  when  great  causes  are  incarnated  in  politics  and 
parties  do  they  command  the  public  mind  and  crystallize  into  those 


IN  THE  MOTHER  COUNTRY  233 

better  laws  that  bring  a  section  of  the    '  organized  millennium ' 
equally  to  each  and  all. 

' '  No  one  (save  duly  elected  delegates  from  the  local  societies 
and  accredited  representatives  of  the  press)  is  allowed  to  be  pres- 
ent at  the  annual  meetings  of  the  Woman's  Liberal  Federation. 
Fortunately  for  me  I  was  chosen  a  delegate  by  the  women  of  New- 
port, Wales,  and  though  under  orders  not  to  speak,  I  could  hardly 
do  less  than  move  the  resolution,  intrusted  to  me  by  them,  con- 
demning the  placing  of  any  further  restrictions  on  the  work  of 
women  until  the  opinion  of  the  women  themselves  has  been  ascer- 
tained in  each  case.  Physically  it  was  an  ordeal  to  be  present  as 
a  spectator  in  meetings  of  such  momentous  interest,  but  it  was  the 
chance  of  a  lifetime.  I  had  prepared  for  it  by  several  weeks  of 
quiet  living  in  the  country,  and  hope  soon  to  recuperate  from  the 
fatigue,  while  the  memory  will  remain  with  me  an  unfailing  fount 
of  inspiration. 

' '  To  some  of  us,  who  believe  in  the  great  educational  power  of 
what  may  be  called  the  aesthetic  side  of  a  movement,  it  would  seem 
to  be  an  improvement  if  there  were  more  in  the  outward  form  that 
appealed  to  the  imagination  and  engraved  upon  the  heart  great 
battle  cries  condensing  argument  and  conviction  in  the  form  of  an 
epigram. 

' '  A  peculiarity  of  English  conventions  (they  never  use  that 
word  here)  is  the  cut-and-dried  order  of  business,  which  is  called 
an  Agenda.  Each  resolution,  motion  and  amendment  is  printed  in 
full,  with  the  name  of  the  person  who  advocates  it  and  the  local 
society  that  he  represents.  As  a  result  of  this  arrangement  there 
is  very  little  occasion  for  the  intricacies  of  parliamentary  usage,  and 
there  is  practically  no  participation  from  the  floor  of  the  house. 
The  women  who,  under  this  rule,  spoke  at  the  '  Woman's  Liberal ' 
(as  it  is  called  for  short)  were  survivals  of  the  fittest,  or  rather  sur- 
vivals of  the  best;  they  spoke  from  the  platform,  and  having 
known  for  days  or  weeks  that  they  were  to  do  so,  brought  excellent 
preparation,  and  in  almost  no  case  was  any  manuscript  to  be  seen. 
They  were,  as  a  rule,  well  heard,  and  what  they  said  was  full  of 


234  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

practical  good  sense,  often  brightened  by  humor.  There  were  the 
usual  complaints  in  the  rear  of  the  hall  that  '  nobody  could  hear  a 
word;  nobody  could  hear  what  was  going  on;  speak  louder;  there 
is  too  much  whispering  on  the  platform,  as  well  as  on  the  floor.' 
In  the  midst  of  these  mildly  murmured  criticisms  the  new  presi- 
dent, Lady  Aberdeen,  smiled  graciously,  and  evidently  held  the 
confidence  and  good  will  of  the  assembly.  She  used  no  gavel,  but 
rang  a  little  bell  from  time  to  time  to  bring  the  delegates  to  order; 
they  were,  however,  remarkably  decorous,  and  all  the  arrange- 
ments combined  to  make  them  so,  the  popular  character  of  the 
meeting  being  its  least  emphatic  feature. 

' '  While  there  are  advantages  in  the  strong  hand  of  officialism 
and  the  sway  of  committeeism  (both  so  dominant  in  all  public 
affairs  on  this  side  of  the  water),  I  question  if  the  greater  spon- 
taneity of  individual  initiative,  which  is  the  ruling  factor  in  our 
American  conventions,  is  not  an  advantage  of  still  greater  value  in 
that  development  of  character  and  intellectual  acumen  on  which, 
in  the  last  analysis,  the  success  of  associated  effort  must  depend. 

"Without  a  dissenting  vote  the  ballot  for  women  was  indorsed 
as  one  of  the  objects  of  the  'Woman's  Liberal,'  to  be  included  in 
its  constitution.  This  decision  created  more  enthusiasm  than  any 
other  subject  that  came  before  the  council.  Home  Rule  was 
adopted  as  a  matter  of  course  without  dissent;  the  same  is  true  of 
the  Liquor  Traffic  Local  Control  Bill;  the  Sunday  closing  of  public 
houses;  closing  during  polling  hours  for  all  elections,  parliamentary 
or  local ;  and  the  council  '  earnestly  desired  that  a  law  should  be 
passed  giving  all  the  adult  inhabitants  of  each  locality  the  complete 
control  of  the  liquor  traffic.'  This  resolution  was  moved  by  Lady 
Henry  Somerset  in  a  brief  but  effective  speech,  and  seconded  by 
Mrs.  Hugh  Price  Hughes.  The  Welsh  Local  Veto  Bill  was  also 
unanimously  indorsed,  It  was  decided  by  unanimous  vote  that 
married  women  should  stand  on  the  same  ground  as  spinsters  and 
widows  in  the  suffrage  bill,  and  that  while  English  women  have 
already  a  municipal  vote  (i.  e. ,  ratepayers  who  are  spinsters  or  wid- 
ows), they  ought,  without  distinction  of  class,  to  have  not  only  the 


IN  THE  MOTHER  COUNTRY  235 

municipal  but  the  parliamentary  franchise,  on  precisely  the  same 
basis  as  men. 

' '  The  bill  to  establish  parish  councils  whereby  local  legislation 
shall  be  taken  from  the  hands  of  squires  and  parsons  and  given  to 
the  people,  was  warmly  indorsed,  and  it  was  declared  that  this  bill 
should  make  it  perfectly  clear  that  women  are  equally  eligible  with 
men  to  elect  and  be  elected,  not  only  in  parish  councils,  but  in  dis- 
trict and  county  councils. 

' '  A  resolution  in  its  favor  was  indorsed  without  dissent ;  indeed, 
every  legal  disability  of  women  seemed  to  be  passed  upon  and 
declared  against  with  practical  unanimity.  Eight  resolutions,  each 
of  them  covering  some  important  phase  of  the  Liberal  movement 
as  it  relates  to  women,  were  adopted  with  enthusiasm. " 

The  Salvation  Army  with  its  militant  leaders  attracted  Miss 
Willard,  and  she  gives  this  account  of  "General  Booth  in  Action": 

"On  March  27,  1893,  in  a  Union  church — which  I  suppose 
means  a  Congregational  in  London  —  spacious  and  on  the  amphi- 
theatre plan,  I  first  saw  and  heard  the  man  whom  I  have  long  been 
wont  to  call  the  '  old  war  eagle '  of  the  Salvation  Army.  It  was 
eleven  o'clock  on  a  bright  spring  morning  when  we  entered,  and  the 
church  was  nearly  full.  A  brass  band  was  stationed  at  the  right 
of  the  pulpit,  and  the  bonnets  of  the  sisterhood  were  a  marked 
feature,  not  only  on  the  platform,  where  one  of  the  General's 
daughters  was  seated,  but  throughout  the  audience,  while  the 
Garibaldi  shirts  of  the  brotherhood  lighted  up  the  scene  on  every 
hand.  One  of  the  officers,  who  has  a  bassoon  voice,  was  singing 
as  we  entered,  and  this  was  the  refrain,  '  He  saves  to  the  utter- 
most'; his  voice  was  mellow  and  immense.  The  General  put  an 
arm  over  the  huge  shoulders  of  the  singer  and  said,  'You  shan't 
sing  it  unless  you  mean  it, '  upon  which  the  gentle  giant  smiled, 
nodded  his  shaggy  head,  and  all  the  people  shouted  'Amen!' 

' '  Having  been  escorted  to  the  platform  by  one  of  the  officers, 
I  had  a  good  opportunity  to  study  the  leader.  He  is,  I  should 
think,  over  six  feet  in  height,  and  has  an  '  off-hand '  manner  in  the 
presence  of  an  audience,  such  as  he  probably  used  when  disporting 


236  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

himself  at  home  with  his  children  in  earlier  days.  He  has  a 
remarkably  fine,  large  head,  well  poised;  keen,  dark-brown  eyes; 
an  eagle  beak  like  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  and  a  long  gray  beard, 
worthy  of  St.  Gerome.  He  has  a  fine,  delicately  made  hand,  with 
the  wedding  ring  on  his  finger  that  reminds  one  of  that  great 
woman  —  '  the  mother '  of  the  Salvation  Army.  In  her  going  the 
light  of  this  world  went  out  from  the  life  of  this  great  leader,  for 
no  two  were  ever  more  devotedly  attached.  He  walks  up  and 
down  the  platform;  advances  with  the  Bible  extended  in  both 
hands;  pounds  the  pulpit;  thrusts  his  hands  through  his  abundant 
dark  locks,  now  turning  to  gray;  and  gestures  with  his  shoulders 
as  well  as  head  and  hands.  He  was  talking  to  the  officers,  who 
had  assembled  to  celebrate  what  was  announced  as  a  '  day  with 
God, '  which  means  a  day  given  up  to  the  endeavor  to  realize  more 
thoroughly  the  personal  relations  of  the  Salvation  soldier  to  the 
Captain  of  the  salvation  of  us  all. 

' '  It  was  a  moving  scene,  as  rough  men  came  forward  crying 
to  the  altar,  women  with  their  little  children,  girls  with  worn,  wan 
faces,  which  told  of  harder  lives  than  they  ought  ever  to  have 
known.  '  Thirty-four  are  in  the  Gospel  net ! '  called  out  one  of  the 
brethren,  going  down  among  them  to  help,  and  we  noticed  that 
men  talked  with  men,  women  with  women;  there  was  no  exception 
to  this  rule,  which  seems  worthy  of  imitation  in  all  revival  meet- 
ings. Among  those  who  superintended  this  solemn  altar  service 
was  a  grandniece  of  Sir  Fowell  Buxton,  the  anti-slavery  reformer, 
and  a  cousin  of  Elizabeth  Fry. 

' '  '  You  want  white  robes, '  cried  out  the  General.  '  They  are 
not  the  fashion  now;  they're  scarce  down  here;  the  smoke  of  Lon- 
don seems  to  soil  them,  but  they  will  be  the  fashion  yonder,  and 
God  will  help  us  carry  them  white  and  clean  into  the  promised 
land. ' 

"It  was  a  scene  that  recalled  the  old-time  camp  meetings  in 
the  far  West.  It  had  all  their  simplicity  of  heart,  earnestness  and 
devotion.  Again  and  again  the  band  led  the  great  assembly  as  it 


IN  THE  MOTHER   COUNTRY  237 

sang:  '  He  saves  to  the  uttermost.'  The  effect  was  indescribable, 
and  moved  to  tears  eyes  not  used  to  weeping;  the  pure  faces  of 
the  Salvation  women  as  they  knelt  beside  the  hapless,  friendless 
young  girls  who  came  forward,  the  brotherly  tones  of  the  men  as 
they  knelt  beside  the  horny-handed,  hard-faced  offenders,  who 
were  crying  for  deliverance;  and  while  they  prayed,  the  General 
turned  to  Lady  Henry  Somerset  and  me,  and  showed  us  a  handful 
of  stub  pipes  already  given  up  by  the  men,  and  said:  'We  get 
these,  and  lots  of  whisky  flasks,  too,  and  so  we  work  for  temper- 
ance. ' 

' '  A  cultivated  woman  handed  me  these  words,  hastily  written, 
as  she  looked  on  the  scene  I  have  described:  '  In  spite  of  all  criti- 
cisms, and  after  all  is  done  and  said,  I  always  ask  myself,  What 
other  organization  brings  the  people  out  of  the  abysses  of  sin  bet- 
ter than  the  Salvation  Army?  I  have  seen  it  in  nearly  all  coun- 
tries of  the  world,  and  it  stops  my  mouth  when  I  hear  something 
said  of  the  Salvationists  which  may  be  true  or  not,  for  the  one 
thing  needful  always  remains,  that  the  Salvation  Army  men  and 
women  are  at  it,  all  at  it,  and  always  at  it  to  save  the  world.' 

' '  One  thing  I  know,  that  this  weary  scribe  went  out  thence 
with  tearful  eyes  and  a  more  mellow  mind,  singing  in  tones 
unheard  except  in  heaven: 

' '  '  Take  my  poor  heart  and  let  it  be 
Forever  closed  to  all  but  Thee.' 

"Doubtless  this  did  not  come  to  pass,  but  I  drew  a  hair's- 
breadth  '  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee, '  because  of  that  strange  morn- 
ing with  the  old  war  eagle  and  his  devoted  brood." 

Nearer  to  Miss  Willard's  heart  than  either  of  these  nineteenth 
century  movements  was  Lady  Henry  Somerset's  cherished  enter- 
prise, the  Duxhurst  Industrial  Farm  Home.  Miss  Willard's  life- 
like description  reveals  to  us  how  at  one  she  ever  was  with 
everything  that  meant  help  to  those  who  thought  themselves 
forgotten : 

' '  To  one  who  looks  below  the  surface  there  is  untold  pathos 
in  the  group  of  pretty  gray  cottages  that  cluster  in  the  edge  of 


238  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

the  trees,  which,  with  the  children's  '  Nest '  near  by,  the  chapel 
and  hospital,  the  Manor  House  and  Hope  House,  make  up  a  veri- 
table village  among  the  pleasant  hills  of  Surrey,  for  on  this  spot 
center  the  affection  and  honest  hard  work  of  the  '  British  Women ' 
and  their  leader,  who  have  set  themselves  by  God's  help  to  give 
to  England  its  most  gracious  object  lesson  in  the  cure  of  inebriety. 
But  the  real  pathos  of  their  holy  endeavor  is  in  the  fact  that  they 
are  working  for  mothers,  for  wives,  and  for  little  children  —  the 
three  classes  of  human  beings  in  whom  center  the  most  of  tender 
thought  and  sacred  love,  and  the  Gospel  of  Christ  alone  renders 
such  an  institution  possible.  '  Neither  do  I  condemn  thee ;  go  in 
peace,  and  sin  no  more, '  is  the  word  of  life  He  spoke,  and  it  applies 
not  to  one  sin,  but  to  all. 

' '  Hence  it  was  fitting  that  the  central  building  of  this  signifi- 
cant and  attractive  group  should  be  a  church,  and  that  its  dedica- 
tion should  be  the  first  public  exercise  ever  engaged  in  here  by  the 
members  and  friends  of  our  farm  colony,  and  it  was  fitting  that 
Canon  Wilberforce,  of  Westminster,  whose  name  suggests  the 
devotion  of  generations  to  '  whatsoever  things  are  pure '  and  good, 
and  whose  lifelong  loyalty  to  the  cause  of  temperance  and  his  later 
declarations  in  favor  of  the  cause  of  women  mark  him  as  the  cham- 
pion in  the  English  Church  of  those  reforms  whereby  the  Christian 
religion  incarnates  itself  in  custom  and  in  law.  It  was  fitting,  too, 
that  the  twentieth  annual  meeting  of  the  British  Woman's  Tem- 
perance Association  should  have  this  dedication  as  its  first  service. 
Lady  Henry  Somerset,  who  has  been  from  the  first  the  presiding 
genius  of  the  enterprise,  arranged  the  plan,  the  details  of  which 
were  filled  in  by  her  devoted  and  capable  associates.  The  Exec- 
utive Committee  came  down  from  London  with  other  invited 
guests.  The  girls  of  St.  Mary's  Home  and  the  children  of  the 
'  Guild  of  the  Poor  Things, '  with  the  cottage  patients,  furnished 
the  music.  Tea  was  served  in  a  large  marquee  on  the  grounds, 
and  the  committee  had  several  hours  in  which  to  go  over  the 
village,  most  of  them  never  having  visited  it  until  today.  When 
the  dedication  was  over,  tea  was  served  in  Lady  Henry's  room, 


IN  THE  MOTHER  COUNTRY  239 

where  Lady  Katharine  Somerset,  Canon  Wilberforce,  his  wife  and 
daughter,  Mrs.  Pearsall-Smith  and  Miss  Agnes  Weston  were  the 
principal  guests. 

' '  That  so  much  had  been  accomplished  in  so  brief  a  space 
was  a  delightful  surprise  and  the  general  theme  of  congratulation. 
No  enterprise  was  ever  more  nobly  served  than  this  cne  has  been 
from  the  first,  but  among  the  capable  and  faithful  workers  it  will 
not  be  deemed  invidious  to  mention  the  Sister  Superintendent,  a 
woman  who  is  a  born  leader  and  organizer  of  forces  on  a  large 
scale;  Sister  Kathleen,  who  is  a  very  Madonna  to  the  homeless 
little  ones  in  the  Nest;  and  Miss  Smith,  the  lady  gardener,  whose 
patient  skill  is  working  out  a  lovely  frame  of  green  sward,  flowers 
and  vines  for  the  picture  made  by  these  charming  cottages. 

4 '  The  church  is  modeled  after  one  at  Engelberg,  Switzerland, 
which  had  attracted  Lady  Henry  Somerset's  attention  when 
sojourning  there,  and  of  which  she  brought  away  a  photograph; 
but  the  coloring,  like  that  of  the  interior  of  all  the  cottages,  is 
according  to  a  scheme  of  her  own,  the  theory  being  that  strong 
masses  of  color  help  to  make  the  walls  attractive.  The  rafters  of 
the  church  are  painted  a  dull  geranium  red,  and  round  the  string- 
course on  a  gold  band  the  Lord's  Prayer  encircles  the  building, 
being  so  arranged  as  to  bring  the  words  '  Our  Father '  directly 
above  the  altar. 

' '  The  walls  are  gray-blue ;  at  the  east  end  they  are  covered 
with  a  beautiful  design  painted  on  canvas,  while  the  hangings  are 
all  rare  embroidery  of  the  fourteenth  century.  The  ornaments  of 
the  chapel  were  given  by  Adeline,  Duchess  of  Bedford.  Yesterday 
the  east  end  was  beautifully  decorated  with  lilies,  palms  and  white 
hydrangeas,  while  the  altar  was  wreathed  with  roses  and  large 
standard  lilies,  all  from  the  gardens  of  Reigate  Priory. 

' '  Canon  Wilberforce  had  prepared  a  service  that  was  especially 
appropriate  and  tender,  in  the  carrying  out  of  which  he  was  assisted 
by  Rev.  Aston  L.  Whitlock,  rector  of  the  parish  and  one  of  the 
most  helpful  friends  of  the  enterprise. 

' '  The  address  of  Canon  Wilberforce  was  characterized  by  the 


240  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

well-known  spiritual  elevation  of  thought  and  vigor  of  utterance 
that  places  him  in  the  forefront  of  English  pulpit  orators.  He 
made  the  spiritual  the  basis  of  physical  health,  and  said  that  it  had 
been  proved  in  recent  scientific  investigations  that  the  sun's  rays 
will  kill  out  every  form  of  microbe  and  bacillus.  Even  so  the 
Divine  beams  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  shining  into  the  human 
heart,  will  kill  out  the  germs  of  every  evil  appetite.  He  said  that 
though  one  feel  as  if  his  heart  were  ice,  this  need  be  no  impedi- 
ment. It  is  well  known  that  in  Sir  John  Franklin's  expedition  a 
lens  cut  from  a  block  of  ice  concentrated  the  sun's  rays  so  that 
they  burned  whatever  combustible  was  placed  beneath  them. 
Even  so  a  heart,  no  matter  how  cold,  could  transmit  the  Divine 
warmth,  only  it  must  be  adjusted  according  to  the  laws  of  optics, 
so  that  it  might  receive  those  rays.  This  was  a  matter  of  the  will, 
and  we  were  responsible  only  for  putting  our  wills  in  the  attitude  of 
loyalty  to  God  according  to  our  best  knowledge,  and  He  himself 
would  answer  for  the  rest.  There  could  be  no  failure  when  the 
will,  which  is  the  central  faculty  of  the  human  soul,  is  deliberately 
made  over  to  Him  who  gave  it.  Thus  the  process  of  escaping  from 
the  bondage  of  any  evil  habit  is  not  intricate  or  mysterious,  but  is 
within  the  apprehension  of  every  mind,  and  may  become  the  most 
blessed  fact  of  every  day's  experience.  This  temple  reared  by 
loving  hands  for  the  glory  of  God,  for  the  renewing  of  the  spirit  of 
our  mind,  for  the  coming  together  of  groups  of  earnest  worshipers, 
was  the  central  edifice  of  this  friendly  village,  this  true  city  of 
refuge,  but  its  significance  would  be  lost  if  any  gathered  here 
should  fail  to  realize  that  what  the  Master  seeks  is  that  other 
temple,  of  which  He  loved  to  speak,  even  the  human  body,  soul 
and  spirit,  in  which  may  dwell  the  Shekinah,  whereby  each  of  us 
becomes  '  a  temple  of  God  through  the  Spirit. ' 

"At  the  close  a  touching  procession  came  down  the  aisle,  the 
little  crippled  and  blind  boys  whom  Sister  Kathleen  and  Sister 
Grace  are  caring  for  at  the  Children's  Nest  —  to  which  Countess 
Somers,  mother  of  Lady  Henry  Somerset,  has  so  largely  contrib- 
uted—  that  halcyon  home  of  happy  outings  for  little  people  from 


IN  THE  MOTHER   COUNTRY  241 

the  London  slums.  They  carried  the  Union  Jack  and  the  flag  of 
their  '  Guild  of  the  Poor  Things  '  (suggested  by  that  pitiful  story  of 
Mrs.  Juliana  Horatio  Ewing,  entitled  '  The  Story  of  a  Short  Life'), 
and  it  bore  the  legend, 

' '  '  The  Son  of  God  goes  forth  to  war, 

A  kingly  crown  to  gain; 
His  blood-red  banner  streams  afar : 
Who  follows  in  His  train?' 

' '  This  is  the  chosen  song  of  the  guild,  and  there  were  tears  in 
all  eyes  as  the  little  fellows  sang  their  hymn  of  conquest,  all  the 
verses  of  which  they  knew  by  heart.  They  have  been  taught  that 
their  crutches  if  used  in  the  right  spirit  and  in  the  Master's  sight, 
are  swords  of  victory,  and  this  is  their  motto,  which  they  repeat  in 
cheery  voices :  '  Happy  is  my  lot. ' 

"It  was  a  tender  climax  to  the  hallowed  service,  this  song 
from  the  loyal  little  hearts  that  know  what  suffering  means  and 
how  to  overcome  it  '  in  His  Name. ' 

'  As  the  audience  came  out  to  the  pretty  portico,  there  stood 
Lady  Henry  Somerset,  who  has  consecrated  such  devoted  toil  and 
generous  gifts  to  the  enterprise,  holding  in  both  hands  a  big  brass 
plate,  and  looking  into  every  face,  her  smiling  glance  seeming  to 
say,  '  And  now  concerning  the  collection. '  Many  gold  coins  were 
left  in  her  care,  and  Mrs.  Massingberd  —  who  but  she,  whose  great 
heart  makes  her  gifts  for  good  continuous  ? —  left  a  scrap  of  paper 
on  which  were  penciled  the  words,  '  In  gratitude  for  the  dedication 
services;  a  hundred  pounds  more  from  E.  L.  M.' 

' '  And  when  it  was  all  over,  as  I  stood  watching  the  long  pro- 
cession of  brakes,  filled  by  those  noble  women  of  the  executive 
committee  who  are  the  special  coworkers  of  their  great  leader;  as 
I  saw  the  little  crippled  fellows  in  their  crimson  blouses,  shouting 
'  Three  cheers  for  Canon  Wilberforce '  (who  lifted  his  hat  to  them 
as  his  carriage  swept  past  with  as  much  deference  as  if  they  had 
been  '  the  Queen's  Own ');  as  I  saw  the  women,  who  are  the  objects 
of  so  much  loving  thought,  going  quietly  to  their  peaceful  cottages, 
and  the  gentle  Sisters  in  uniform,  who  have  them  in  their  care,  I 

16 


242  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

wondered  if  there  was  in  all  this  great  and  powerful  England  a  spot 
of  ground  dearer  to  God  than  that  on  which  the  Farm  Home  Col- 
ony has  raised  its  sacred  walls." 

At  the  farewell  meeting  given  to  White  Ribbon  delegates 
in  London  on  the  occasion  of  the  World's  Convention  in  June, 
1895,  Miss  Willard  introduced  a  novel  feature,  destined  to  become 
a  permanent  and  delightful  one  in  our  great  gatherings.  It  is  thus 
described  in  the  Union  Signal : 

' '  Exeter  Hall  —  that  historic  gathering  place  which  has 
resounded  with  the  tones  of  voices  renowned  in  eloquence,  the  hall 
in  which  the  famous  May  meetings  of  reform  and  philanthropic 
societies  of  every  description  are  annually  held — presented  a  festal 
appearance  to  the  large  audience  at  the  farewell  meeting  to  the  del- 
egates, June  23.  The  familiar  world's  banner,  first  used  at  the 
Boston  Convention,  upon  the  organ  loft,  the  large  motto  on  the 
gallery  opposite  —  '  We  wage  our  peaceful  war  for  God  and  Home 
and  Every  Land '  —  the  beautiful  lilies,  palms,  gay  banners,  all 
gave  the  room  the  appearance  of  a  genuine  W.  C.  T.  U.  gath- 
ering. Beyond  the  fact  that  Miss  Willard  was  to  preside  and 
Madam  Sterling  sing,  nothing  was  known  of  the  character  of  the 
meeting.  But  no  one  was  left  long  in  doubt,  for  after  the  opening 
hymn  and  devotions,  the  chairman  divulged  her  unique  programme : 
'  It  is  well  known, '  she  naively  said,  '  that  the  temperance  women 
are  minute  women,  and  so  I  simply  asked  to  have  a  list  of  the 
names  of  those  who  were  to  sit  upon  the  platform,  and  have  no 
other  programme.  Not  a  single  woman  was  told  she  would  be 
called  upon.'  The  amazement  of  those  who  sat  facing  the  audi- 
ence was  intensely  interesting  to  those  beyond  the  pale.  But  the 
result  proved  the  correctness  of  the  president's  faith.  Scintillating 
truths  and  nuggets  of  golden  thought  dropped  in  showers.  Not  a 
soul  within  reach  of  the  chairman's  keen  eye  escaped  a  call.  Gems 
of  thought  were  uttered  in  quick  succession  and  so  spontaneously 
that  the  venerable  and  knightly  Sir  George  Williams,  the  pioneer 
philanthropist,  founder  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  President  of  the 
Band  of  Hope  Union,  was  moved  to  say:  'Often  have  I  sat  in 


IN  THE  MOTHER  COUNTRY  243 

this  hall,  but  never  in  my  life  heard  so  many  speakers  at  one  meet- 
ing. I  never  knew  how  beautifully  a  meeting  could  be  conducted 
until  today!'  There  were  thirty-seven  speakers  in  the  two  hours, 
besides  the  singing  —  a  record  hardly  to  be  broken  by  any  other 
organization  or  any  other  chairman  in  any  land!" 

In  connection  with  the  same  convention,  a  gala-day  for  the 
delegates  was  the  reception  and  garden  fete  at  Reigate  Priory,  one 
of  Lady  Henry  Somerset's  charming  country  homes.  Again  we 
quote  from  the  Union  Signal : 

"The  quaint  and  beautiful  English  village  was  stormed  by 
White  Ribboners,  whose  processional  advent  along  the  leafy,  peace- 
ful streets  was  looked  upon  with  interest  by  the  inhabitants  of  Lady 
Henry's  quiet  retiring  place.  Two  long  excursion  trains  had  rapidly 
borne  the  happy  host  out  from  the  city,  and  to  the  delegates,  worn 
somewhat  with  constant  attendance  at  the  great  meetings  and 
interludes  of  sightseeing,  the  sweet  country  air  and  genial  sunshine 
of  the  perfect  June  day  were  as  nectar  to  a  thirsty  spirit. 

' '  The  long  line  of  women,  with  here  and  there  a  favored  man, 
proceeded  along  the  village  streets,  past  the  familiar  '  Cottage ' 
(recognized  at  once  by  many),  and  through  the  gates  to  the  Priory, 
whose  long,  low,  simple  outlines  gave  little  indication  of  the  wealth 
and  beauty  within.  At  the  door  of  the  great  hall,  Lady  Henry 
Somerset  graciously  made  all  feel  at  home,  and  just  inside  the  first 
entrance  Miss  Willard,  with  a  happy  and  pertinent  word  for  each, 
received  the  guests,  whose  number  was  nearly  one  thousand.  The 
fine  mansion  was  thrown  open  to  the  visitors,  who  soon  invaded 
every  corner  —  the  perfectly  decorated,  pale  green  silk-hung  draw- 
ing-room; the  library  in  white  and  gold,  with  its  hundreds  of  rare 
volumes  ;  the  dining  room,  with  its  dark  wainscotings  and  handsome 
red  tapestry  hangings;  the  dainty  reception  room,  and  others  rich 
in  rare  furniture,  portraits,  armor  and  bric-a-brac.  But  the  chief 
points  of  interest  were  the  '  dens ' —  Miss  Willard's,  with  its  artistic 
furnishings,  at  once  recognized  by  '  mother's  '  picture  over  the  man- 
tel and  the  familiar  traveling  hand  bag  with  its  initials,  F.  E.  W. , 
lying  upon  the  desk;  and  Lady  Henry's  room,  which  appeared  very 


244  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

thought-inviting.  The  familiar  face  of  the  beloved  Quaker  poet 
looked  down  upon  the  temperance  workers  of  many  lands  who 
peeped  into  this  sanctum  of  the  reform  leader. 

' '  Out  upon  the  lawn  and  in  the  garden  the  scene  was  a  festive 
one.  Under  a  magnificent  willow  tree  a  band  (appropriately  of 
women)  played  lively  melodies.  At  the  long  tables  beneath  the 
canvas  tent  and  at  many  smaller  tables  near,  the  guests  were  being 
served  in  true  English  fashion.  It  was  a  social,  friendly  company, 
for  no  other  introduction  was  needed  than  the  significant  knot  of 
white.  Armenian  and  Scandinavian,  Indian  and  South  African, 
German,  Swedish  and  French  delegates  mingled  with  those  of 
English-speaking  countries  in  unhedged  social  converse,  giving  the 
gathering  a  real  cosmopolitan  character.  Of  course,  with  such  a 
company  speechmaking  could  not  be  omitted,  so  a  platform  was 
improvised,  and  those  who  could  get  within  hearing  distance  doubt- 
less heard  much  that  was  witty  and  wise.  The  occasion  was 
honored  by  the  presence  of  the  Countess  Somers,  Lady  Henry's 
mother,  vying  with  her  daughter  in  youthful  looks.  Countess 
Somers  is  greatly  interested  in  the  reform  work  of  her  noble 
daughter,  reading  the  Union  Signal  and  following  the  progress 
of  the  great  reform. 

"So  much  had  the  weather,  the  occasion  and  the  surroundings 
delighted  the  happy  guests  that  it  was  with  regret  they  heard  the 
sweet  bells  of  the  Priory  clock  announce  the  hour  of  departure.  It 
will  be  long  before  the  tourists  '  forget  that  day  in  June  '  which  took 
them  into  the  sunshine  of  Lady  Henry  Somerset's  lavish  hospi- 
tality. " 

But  this  workaday  world  of  speaking,  writing  and  sociolog- 
ical sympathies  was  irradiated  by  charming  recreation,  excursions 
to  historic  places,  short  visits  to  the  seaside  and  rare  glimpses  of 
delightful  English  homes.  We  know  how  congenial  was  the  touch 
of  spirits  akin  to  her  own  on  an  intellectual  plane,  and  she  has  told 
us  in  her  own  incisive  way  of  her  love  of  the  companionship  of  the 
wise  and  good: 

"  If  I  were  to  ask  of  every  person  I  met,  the  question  of  all 


IN  THE  MOTHER   COUNTRY  245 

others  pertaining  to  this  world  that  I  would  like  to  ask,  it  would 
be  this:  Who  and  how  many  among  the  great  characters  of  our 
time  have  you  personally  known,  and  what  can  you  tell  me  about 

them? I  confess  that  everything  about  elect 

souls  has  a  personal  interest  for  me;  their  letters  I  preserve;  their 
pictures,  in  simple  heliotype,  fresco  my  walls;  their  photographs 
crowd  my  ever-growing  '  collections ' ;  their  autographs  are  sedu- 
lously cherished,  and  every  word,  allusion,  or  anecdote  which 
brings  them  out  into  clearer  perspective  is  of  zestful  interest 
always.  For  I  think  there  is  much  in  the  theory  of  an  '  aura '  sur- 
rounding every  one  of  them,  the  veiled  effluence  of  the  spiritual 
body,  perhaps,  by  which  something  of  absolute  personality  goes 
with  the  handwriting  and  passes  into  the  photographed  face.  This 
may  be  wholly  fanciful,  but  it  is  a  most  pleasant  fancy  to  me  and 
peoples  my  little  room  with  presences  noble,  gracious  and  inspir- 
ing." 

First  among  the  personalities  toward  whom  Miss  Willard 
was  drawn  in  England  was  Her  Majesty  the  Queen.  She  gives  us 
this  picture  of  the  true  and  noble  woman  who  is  first  in  the  hearts 
of  all  English-speaking  people  as  she  saw  her  in  London  at  the 
opening  of  the  Imperial  Institute: 

' '  We  were  on  hand  at  ten  o'clock  although  we  knew  the  Queen 
would  not  arrive  until  after  noon.  The  grand  stands  with  their 
thirty  thousand  occupants  were  filled  a  little  after  ten.  Opera  glass 
in  hand,  we  watched  the  gradual  rally  of  what  is  technically  known 
in  these  parts  as  '  the  aristocracy, '  preceded  by  their  gorgeously 
attired  guardians  and  variegated  flunkies.  The  cheering  is  but 
slight  as  many  great  ones  come,  for  the  waiting  thousands  are  all 
watching  for  the  Queen.  Punctuality  is  the  politeness  of  royalty, 
and  though  famous  for  this  quality,  and  promised  to  the  crowd  at 
fifteen  minutes  after  twelve,  such  is  the  throng  through  which  she 
has  to  pass,  that  the  Queen  does  not  arrive  till  half-past  twelve. 

"  '  Is  it  not  curious, '  says  an  American  White-Ribboner  whose 
field  glass  is  faithfully  directed  toward  the  distance  whence  the 
Queen  is  to  emerge,  '  that  I  can  be  thinking  of  all  this  pageantry, 


246  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

the  like  of  which  I  never  saw  before  and  shall  not  see  again,  and 
yet  away  down  in  my  heart  I  am  observing  ' '  the  noontide  hour  " 
of  the  White-Ribboners?  ' 

"  '  So  am  I,'  was  the  answer,  and  no  more  is  said  till  the  flash 
of  spears  is  seen,  the  passing  of  half  a  dozen  carriages  containing 
the  lesser  lights  of  the  royal  household,  and  then  a  carriage  drawn 
by  six  cream-colored  horses  from  Hanover,  each  gorgeously  capari- 
soned in  red  and  gold,  the  manes  being  entirely  covered  by  tassels 
of  bright  color;  a  plump  postillion  mounted  on  the  left-hand  horse 
of  each  pair,  besides  a  gentleman  in  scarlet  who  leads  each  separ- 
ate horse;  two  handsome  Highlanders  in  a  high  seat  perched  up 
behind;  two  fair,  attractive  young  Englishwomen,  Princess  Chris- 
tian and  Princess  Beatrice,  on  the  front  seat,  and  all  alone  in  the 
middle  of  the  back  seat  a  somewhat  stout,  short  figure  dressed  in 
black,  without  a  jewel,  without  a  ribbon,  just  a  kindly,  quiet,  dig- 
nified lady  that  anybody  would  have  been  glad  to  call  his  mother 
or  his  grandmother.  At  a  foot  pace  the  carriage  passed,  amid 
loud  hurrahs,  while  a  bright  flag  bearing  the  harp  of  Erin,  the  Cross 
of  St.  Andrew  and  the  Lions  of  England  was  suddenly  flung  out 
into  the  sunshine  from  the  top  of  the  tower  and  bands  of  music 
played  '  God  Save  the  Queen. '  Victoria  and  her  daughters  bowed 
quietly  to  the  right  and  left,  the  Queen  simply  inclining  her  head 
with  a  most  intelligent  and  kindly  expression;  and  one  stalwart 
republican  from  the  New  World  looked  at  her  with  dimmed  vision 
as  she  thought  that  here  and  now  came  to  a  focus  all  that  is  best 
in  man's  achievement  during  all  the  centuries;  and  that  a  woman 
was  the  chief  figure  in  all  that  gorgeous  pageantry  —  a  woman  who 
has  been  true  to  the  sacred  duties  of  wife,  mother  and  friend,  true 
to  the  magnificent  powers  reposed  in  her  as  Queen. 

' '  I  remembered  that  when  at  sixteen  years  of  age  she  was  told 
that  she  was  to  rule  over  this  mighty  Empire,  there  was  no  exulta- 
tion in  look  or  tone,  but  with  clasped  hands  she  faltered  out,  '  God 
help  me  to  be  good. '  I  remembered  her  tender  love  and  loyalty 
to  that  pure,  noble  man  to  whom  she  gave  her  heart  in  early 
youth,  and  that  when  asked  the  explanation  of  England's  great- 


IN  THE  MOTHER   COUNTRY  247 

ness,  she  said,  '  It  is  the  Bible  and  Christianity. '  I  knew  that 
England  did  not  live  up  to  its  high  standard,  but  believed  she 
would  some  day;  and  that  this  great  reign  —  so  rich  in  triumphs  of 
literature  and  art,  in  the  spirit  of  civilization,  in  the  uplift  of  the 
people,  in  the  emancipation  of  women  —  has  contributed  more 
than  any  other  reign  the  world  has  known  to  bring  about  the  reali- 
zation of  universal  brotherhood.  I  knew  that  no  human  being 
on  the  globe  concentrates  in  her  history  and  influence  so  many 
thoughts;  that  this  quiet  woman  is  the  cynosure  of  civilization; 
presidents  and  princes  come  and  go,  but  she  goes  on  and  on  until 
it  seems  as  if  her  reign  is  likely  to  be  the  longest,  as  well  as  the 
most  beneficent,  of  which  history  makes  mention. 

'  We  waited  an  hour  while  the  Queen,  leaning  on  an  ebony 
cane,  disappeared  with  her  children  into  the  great  temple  of  indus- 
try and  achievement,  and  we  knew  that  she  had  made  her  speech 
when  the  chime  of  bells  in  the  beautiful  tower  told  that  the  inau- 
guration ceremony  was  complete.  We  knew  that  Sir  Arthur  Sul- 
livan had  conducted  the  orchestra,  that  Madame  Albani  had  led 
the  audience  in  singing  '  God  Save  the  Queen ' ;  and  that  the 
chimes  were  to  tell  us  all  of  the  joy  —  that  the  climax  had  come. 

' '  A  few  minutes  later  the  whole  procession  passed  us  on  its 
return  to  Buckingham  Palace,  and  it  was  a  touch  of  nature  pleas- 
ant indeed  to  see,  when  the  Queen's  sons  with  their  wives  and 
children  —  Wales,  Edinburgh,  and  Connaught  with  his  blithe 
young  princess  beside  him  —  walked  along  the  pavement  to  meet 
the  carriage  of  the  Queen,  and  to  salute  Her  Majesty,  who  smiled 
on  them  with  the  simple  kindness  of  a  mother. 

"  Meanwhile  the  chime  of  bells  rang  merrily,  each  bell  named 
after  one  of  the  Queen's  children,  and  the  chime  christened  Alex- 
andra for  the  Princess  of  Wales.  To  me  as  I  gazed  at  the  vanish- 
ing figure  that  was  the  center  of  all  this  pomp  and  circumstance, 
and  knew  that  I  should  never  see  again  the  Queen  of  England  and 
Empress  of  India,  the  music  of  the  bells  seemed  to  be  saying 
those  matchless  words  of  Tennyson: 


248  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

11  'The  love  of  all  thy  sons  encompass  thee, 
The  love  of  all  thy  daughters  cherish  thee, 
The  love  of  all  thy  people  comfort  thee  — 
Till  God's  love  set  thee  at  his  side  again.' 

Describing  "An  English  election  from  an  American  point  of 
view,"  Miss  Willard  writes: 

No  object  lesson  that  I  have  ever  seen  has  so  deeply  impressed 
me  with  the  importance  of  woman's  franchise  to  the  well-being  of 
everybody  as  the  elections  just  over  in  the  mother  country.  Lady 
Henry  Somerset  and  I  have  participated  in  the  campaign,  speak- 
ing for  Sir  Wilfrid  Lawson  and  other  temperance  candidates  of  the 
Liberal  party,  and  have  never  addressed  audiences  so  much  to  my 
liking  —  I  mean  political  audiences.  They  reminded  me  most  of 
all  of  the  Constitutional  Amendment  campaigns  of  other  years, 
only  these  are  even  more  homelike  in  their  character.  Many  of 
the  political  meetings  here  are  held  in  churches  and  presided  over 
by  the  ministers,  who  make  the  opening  speech;  others  are  held 
in  schoolhouses,  others  in  halls  and  opera  houses.  They  are 
attended  indiscriminately  by  women  and  men,  youths  and  maidens, 
boys  and  girls.  When  a  speaker  who  is  especially  liked  comes 
forward  the  whole  audience  arises  and  gives  three  cheers,  repeating 
this  action  at  the  close.  If  he  makes  points  all  along  through  his 
speech,  they  are  caught  with  great  rapidity,  and  applauded  with 
cheers  and  « '  Hear,  hear, "  so  that  a  speaker  is  likely  to  do  much 
better  than  before  the  comparatively  silent  audiences  in  our  own 
country.  I  have  heard  the  candidate,  after  an  uproarious  reception, 
proceed  to  read  off  a  list  of  those  whom  he  wishes  to  especially 
thank,  and  it  is  curious  enough  to  note  that  this  list  was  usually 
made  up  of  the  names  of  different  committees  of  women;  the 
British  Women's  Temperance  Association  usually  coming  in  next 
to  the  ' '  Women's  Liberal, "  that  being  the  political  tender  to  the 
express  train  of  the  Liberal  party  throughout  Great  Britain,  for 
the  canvassing  from  house  to  house  to  see  if  the  registration  has 
been  carried  out;  and  the  electioneering  is  done  chiefly  by  women. 
In  one  of  the  large  meetings  a  devoted  mother  stood  forward 


IN  THE  MOTHER   COUNTRY  249 

and  made  an  impassioned  plea  for  her  son,  a  fine  young  fellow, 
who  was  the  Liberal  candidate.  She  described  his  qualities,  his 
training,  his  home  life,  school  and  college  life,  and  his  career  since 
then.  She  told  the  electors  that  they  could  not  vote  for  a  candi- 
date of  whom  it  could  be  said  more  truly  that  he  ' '  had  always 
been  a  good  boy."  When  his  father  and  mother,  sister  and 
brothers  came  upon  the  platform  they  were  received  with  cheers, 
and  the  spec'  .  that  I  have  mentioned  was  followed  with  a  regular 
three  time  chree  round  of  cheering  ' '  for  the  mother. " 

Women  have  been  out  speaking  during  this  campaign,  and 
the  Conservative  high-born  dames,  who  are  most  exclusive,  have 
not  hesitated  to  throw  themselves  heartily  into  the  canvassing.  It 
is  said  that  Henry  M.  Stanley,  the  great  explorer,  owes  the  seat 
he  has  just  won  (and  which  he  lost  at  the  last  election)  to  the  con- 
stant ' '  wooing  of  the  electorate  "  since  then  by  his  accomplished 
wife,  Mrs.  Dorothy  Tennant  Stanley. 

I  have  never  seen  an  election  so  ..omelike  in  every  sense  of 
the  word,  for  women  are  everywhere,  and,  alas!  in  this  country 
they  are  in  the  saloons  and  public  bars  serving  out  liquor  on  the 
election  day !  The  development  of  athletic  sports  is  so  tremendous 
in  this  country  among  women  that  it  has  become  literally  true  that 
you  can  hardly  mention  any  recreation  —  including  politics  —  in 
which  men  and  women  do  not  go  forward  side  by  side. 

The  downfall  of  the  local  option  measure  is  greatly  deplored 
by  our  temperance  workers,  and,  oddly  enough,  it  is  attributed  by 
many  to  the  great  White  Ribbon  demonstrations  that,  it  is  said, 
"alarmed  the  wageworker  lest  he  should  lose  his  beer  and  his 
place  of  recreation  by  the  closing  of  the  public  houses. "  At  any 
rate,  the  election  has  turned  on  the  temperance  question,  and  while 
the  Conservatives  will  not  do  all  that  we  wish,  they  are  pretty 
sure  to  bring  in  some  measure  that  will  help  to  ameliorate  the 
present  situation.  Mr.  Arthur  J.  Balfour,  the  leader  of  the  Con- 
servative party  in  the  House  of  Commons,  has  made  the  following 
declaration  since  the  election: 

44  But  we  have  not  in  this  country  sunk  so  low,"  he  said,  indig- 

17 


25o  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

nantly,  ' '  that  our  constituencies  are  to  be  manipulated  at  the  will 
of  any  interest,  however  powerful;  and  depend  upon  it,  it  does  not 
rest  with  publicans  and  brewers  —  be  their  merits  or  be  their 
demerits  what  they  may  —  to  determine  who  it  is  shall  govern  the 
destinies  of  this  Empire. " 

What  we  need  is  woman's  full  participation  in  the  franchise, 
and  then  the  temperance  and  purity  questions,  the  wage  questions, 
and  that  of  old-age  pensions  will  be  handled  with  the  wisdom  and 
mercy  of  the  combined  heads  of  the  home  and  the  human  family 
at  large.  Because  I  believe  this  I  am  not  so  downcast  over  the 
recent  rout  of  the  party  to  which  every  America  i  must  belong  — 
that  is  the  Liberal  party  —  as  I  should  be  were  not  my  faith  in  the 
future  based  on  ' '  that  Power  not  of  ourselves  that  makes  for  right- 
eousness. " 

Reigate  Priory,  England,  July  24. 


Even  an  outline  record  of  the  six  years  of  alternate  life  at 
home  and  abroad  would  be  incomplete  without  an  allusion  to  a 
happy  summer  with  Lady  Henry  Somerset  in  ' '  Eagle's  Nest, "  at 
Twilight  Park,  the  Catskills  —  that  skyey,  woodsy,  delicious  hid- 
ing place,  made  downy  and  soft  by  White  Ribboner's  hands,  and 
alive  with  the  artistic  sense  of  its  beloved  inspirator.  There  were 
farewell  meetings  on  the  English  side  the  sea;  there  were  glad 
welcomes  on  the  American  shore;  and  in  Berlin,  Germany,  a 
4 '  ten-days'  wonder  of  an  Easter  outing  "  which  is  thus  described  by 
Miss  Willard  in  one  of  her  home  letters  to  the  Union  Signal : 

' '  To  be  able  once  more  to  send  a  lead-pencil  letter  '  en  route ' 
to  '  our  folks, '  is  a  token  of  improved  physical  condition  that 
brings  me  into  happy  harmony  with  the  tender  fields  of  green  and 
skies  of  blue,  and  that  about  me  and  above.  We  have  had  a  ten- 
days'  wonder  of  an  Easter  outing,  all  of  which,  except  the  two 


IN  THE  MOTHER   COUNTRY  251 

twenty-seven-hour  journeys  from  '  The  Cottage,  Reigate, '  to  the 
German  capital  and  back,  we  have  invested  with  Mrs.  Mary  B. 
Willard  and  her  children.  Lady  Henry  went  to  Paris  with  her 
son,  and,  having  remained  quiet  all  winter,  I  thought  to  try  my 
wings  preparatory  to  the  home  flight  in  June,  and  am  delighted  to 
find  that,  though  ill  by  reason  of  a  cold  in  the  early  days  of  my 
sojourn,  I  have  been  able  to  go  about  somewhat  the  last  two,  revis- 
iting the  scenes  I  had  known  in  1868,  when  in  Berlin  as  a  student. 

"But  while  I  met  many  distinguished  men  and  women  (of 
whom  more  anon),  the  most  delightful  episode  was  an  evening  in 
the  large  drawing-room  of  my  sister's  'American  Home  School,' 
with  herself,  my  nieces  Katharine  and  Mary,  my  nephew  Frank, 
and  the  pupils  from  many  States,  including  California  and  Colo- 
rado. We  agreed  to  give  each  other  of  our  best,  and  talked  of 
the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man,  and  that  life  of  man  in  the  soul 
of  his  brother,  which  together  make  up  all  true  work  and  worship. 
We  sang  dear  hymns  of  home  and  sanctuary,  enshrining  memo- 
ries the  most  tender  and  hopes  that  'lay  hold  on  immortality.' 
Among  them  were  the  Church  of  England's  beautiful  '  Hymn  for 
Those  at  Sea'  as  there  are  almost  always  those  in  the  group 
whose  loved  ones  have  '  gone  down  to  the  sea  in  ships. '  We  spoke 
of  Matthew  Arnold's  definition  of  '  culture  as  a  '  knowledge  of 
the  best  that  has  been  said  and  done  in  the  world '  (a  free  render- 
ing this,  from  memory) ;  whereupon  we  incited  each  other  to  quote 
from  the  poets,  and  the  choice  morsels  were  like  honey  in  the 
honeycomb.  '  From  grave  to  gay,  from  lively  to  severe, '  we 
ranged,  like  bees  in  a  posy  garden,  and  if  I  could  write  here  one- 
tenth  of  the  good  things  garnered  from  years  of  reading  by  that 
score  of  aspiring  Americans,  that  inspired  French  teacher,  and  the 
accomplished  young  Japanese  (a  student  in  the  university  who 
quoted  from  his  native  poets),  it  would  make  one  whole  appetizing 
number  of  the  White  Ribbon  woman's  own  pet  paper. 

' '  But  I  shall  not  attempt  it,  for  the  spirit  of  that  halcyon 
hour  can  no  more  be  adequately  reproduced  than  the  song  of  a 
shell  or  the  tint  of  a  rose  leaf.  Of  the  practical  outcome,  how- 


252  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

ever,  I  wish  to  say  a  word:  We  then  and  there  resolved,  unani- 
mously, that  it  was  every  one's  duty  and  privilege  to  quote  at  least 
one  couplet  —  so  far  as  possible  the  best  —  from  each  leading  poet 
of  all  times,  and  especially  from  each  leading  poet  of  England  and 
America.  We  then  declared  that  as  the  big  quotation  books  are 
costly,  unwieldly  and  impracticable  for  people  generally,  we  would 
proceed  to  compile  a  little  pocket  handbook  which,  were  one 
familiar  with  its  contents,  would  make  him  (or  her)  master  of  one 
priceless  thought  from  each  of  the  electest  minds,  especially  those 
whose  language-drapery  was  after  fashions  English  or  American. 
We  then  appointed  a  committee,  in  good,  orthodox  fashion,  and 
any  who  are  interested  may  look  out  for  our  booklet  in  time  for  the 
next  holidays.  'Can  you  quote  from  Spenser?  From  Dryden? 
Schiller?  Hugo?'  will  be  questions  then  answered  in  the  affirma- 
tive by  many  who  must  now  be  silent  —  at  least  that  is  our 
notion. 

' '  When  the  happy,  helpful  evening  was  over,  we  all  made  a 
'  ring,  round  rosy, '  holding  hands  (as  I  told  the  girls  was  our  cus- 
tom at  the  close  of  W.  C.  T.  U.  conventions,  and  repeated  together 
after  singing  '  Auld  Lang  Syne, '  our  White  Ribbon  farewell :  '  The 
Lord  bless  thee  and  keep  thee. ' 

' '  So  good-by,  gentle  readers,  and  '  God  bless  us,  every  one. ' 

"FRANCES    E.     WlLLARD. 

"  On  the  cars  in  Holland,  en  route  to  London." 

Miss  Willard's  bright  setting  forth  of  "A  Day  with  Lady 
Henry  Somerset, "  is  our  last  touch  on  the  picture  of  life  in  the 
Mother  Country,  a  rich  and  glowing  experience  which  at  some 
future  time  must  be  painted  by  the  artistic  hand  of  the  friend 
whose  lavish  love  made  it  possible: 

' '  The  natural  likings  of  Lady  Henry  Somerset  are  remarka- 
ble for  their  simplicity.  While  she  is  notably  aesthetic  by  nature 
and  cultivation,  her  surroundings  always  being  strikingly  harmo- 
nious in  form  and  color,  and  her  dress  remarkably  attractive,  it 
was  perhaps  the  most  salient  feature  of  her  life  in  America,  in  the 
simple  flat  she  rented  in  Chicago;  also  at  Rest  Cottage,  and  in  my 


IN  THE  MOTHER  COUNTRY  253 

primitive  Eagle's  Nest  chalet  in  the  Catskills,  that  Lady  Henry  was 
one  of  the  least  exigent  of  guests  and  housekeepers.  In  the  Cot- 
tage at  Reigate,  twenty  miles  from  London,  where  she  lived  seven 
years,  she  seemed  more  happy  than  in  the  palatial  halls  of  Eastnor 
Castle,  or  the  rich  garniture  of  the  Priory. 

"But  the  coming  of  age  of  her  son,  and  his  marriage  to  a 
duke's  daughter,  have  involved  a  return  to  the  luxurious  modes  in 
which  she  always  lived  until  she  became  a  reformer.  As  a  matter 
of  course,  this  adds  to  the  complexity  of  a  daily  routine  already 
difficult. 

' '  To  sit  down  to  dinner  at  eight  or  nine  o'clock,  to  breakfast  at 
ten,  lunch  at  two,  and  have  tea  at  five  o'clock,  cannot  conduce  to 
the  success  of  her  philanthropic  plans;  but  such  is  the  versatility  of 
this  thorough  woman  of  society  and  the  world,  who  has  become  a 
devoted  White-Ribboner  and  all-around  reformer,  that  she  moves 
on  among  the  intricacies  of  her  environment  without  altering  the 
substantial  quality  of  her  work. 

"  As  a  matter  of  course  she  does  not  rise  early;  it  is  the  well- 
known  European  custom  to  take  coffee  and  rolls  before  leaving 
one's  room,  and  to  this  Lady  Henry  adds  the  mental  breakfast  of 
the  London  morning  papers  and  a  mail  made  up  of  anywhere  from 
seventy-five  to  two  hundred  letters,  besides  papers  innumerable 
from  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  press  clippings  on  any  subjects 
concerning  which  she  wishes  to  be  specially  informed.  This 
voluminous  report  from  the  great  world  is  looked  over  in  a  general 
way  and  then  carried  to  the  office  of  her  secretary,  Mrs.  Ward 
Poole,  a  remarkably  quick-minded  and  genial  lady,  who  examines 
it  with  care,  dealing  with  the  painful  reiteration  of  requests  for 
help,  and  giving  out  much  of  the  work  to  stenographers. 

' '  Lady  Henry's  maid  (a  devoted  young  woman  who  was 
schoolmistress  at  Eastnor,  and  signed  the  pledge  when  she  did) 
brings  in  the  letters  and  assists  in  her  ladyship's  toilet,  after  which 
the  Priory  bell  rings,  and  the  household  gathers  in  a  pretty  chapel 
under  the  trees,  where  Lady  Henry  conducts  morning  prayers 
after  the  manner  of  the  Church  of  England. 


254  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

"Then  comes  breakfast  in  the  beautiful  dining  room,  embel- 
lished with  carvings,  paintings,  and  furniture,  all  from  Venice,  and 
looking  out  on  a  velvet  lawn  shaded  by  ancestral  elms.  Lady 
Henry  then  retires  to  her  '  den, '  an  exquisite  room,  which,  per- 
haps more  than  any  other  in  the  house,  bears  the  impress  of  her 
personality.  Over  her  writing  desk  are  busts  of  Dante,  Whittier, 
and  John  Wesley  —  a  fit  indication  of  her  wide  hospitality  of 
thought.  On  an  inlaid  cabinet  near  by  is  a  bronze  statuette  of 
Joan  of  Arc  when,  as  a  girl  of  sixteen,  she  led  the  armies  of 
France.  In  one  of  the  bright  windows  stands  a  group  of  the 
Madonna  and  Child;  over  the  fireplace  is  an  inlaid  carving  illustra- 
tive of  temperance;  the  alcoves  on  either  side  are  full  of  choice 
books  in  several  languages,  and  ranging  over  an  almost  unbeliev- 
able variety  of  subjects;  in  another  window,  under  glass,  are  some 
rare  chrysalids  and  butterflies,  sent  her  from  India,  whose  evolu- 
tion the  mistress  of  the  establishment  watches  with  intense 
interest. 

' '  Pictures  and  photographs  cover  the  walls.  They  are  not 
what  you  would  see  elsewhere,  probably  none  have  ever  greeted 
your  eyes  before;  many  of  them  are  the  work  of  famous  artists, 
and  none  are  finer  than  the  oil  painting  by  Earl  Somers,  Lady 
Henry's  gifted  father,  who  made  a  study  of  the  Greek  monasteries 
and  transferred  the  most  picturesque  to  canvas.  , j 

"Lady  Henry  is  very  fond  of  pets.  One  could  write  a 
charming  article  about  her  horses,  sacred  cattle  from  India,  Egyp- 
tian gazelles,  donkeys,  ponies,  birds,  dogs  and  cats.  While  she 
is  at  work  she  likes  to  have  the  most  attractive  of  them  all,  Mag- 
gie, her  Scotch  collie,  beside  her,  and  they  make  a  charming  pic- 
ture, the  bright,  winsome  activity  of  the  mistress  and  the  intense 
devotion  of  the  beautiful  dog. 

' '  By  the  time  Lady  Henry  is  ready  to  meet  the  public  many 
are  waiting  to  see  her.  Perhaps  one  is  her  business  factotum, 
Captain  P.  (formerly  an  officer  in  the  royal  navy),  her  steward, 
butler,  housekeeper,  gardener,  the  superintendent  of  the  Duxhurst 
Industrial  Colony  for  inebriate  women,  four  miles  distant  (from 


IN  THE  MOTHER  COUNTRY  255 

which  three  thousand  have  been  turned  away  this  year  for  want  of 
room),  or  the  matron  of  St.  Mary's  Home  for  Friendless  Children, 
an  institution  erected  by  Lady  Henry  in  memory  of  her  father. 
All  these,  and  many  others,  are  likely  to  be  waiting  for  a  word;  or 
the  housekeeper  from  the  cottage,  hardly  a  stone's  throw  distant, 
where  guests  are  always  staying;  or  philanthropists  of  various 
degrees,  who  have  come  from  London  by  appointment,  and  who 
wish  to  make  known  to  her  the  very  best  way  of  conducting  her 
enterprises  or  to  enlist  her  in  their  own;  or  the  steward  of  Eastnor 
Castle,  or  some  other  of  its  officials,  perhaps  the  rector  or  curate, 
have  come  over  one  hundred  miles  to  see  her  on  important  busi- 
ness ;  or  it  may  be  that  the  general  officers  of  the  British  Women's 
Temperance  Association,  of  which  she  is  president,  or  of  the 
World's  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  of  which  she  is 
vice-president-at-large,  have  come  to  hold  with  her  a  consultation 
in  the  '  den '  or  the  great  '  Holbein  hall '  of  the  Priory,  or  under 
the  beautiful  elms,  where  I  have  seen  a  hundred  women  gathered 
in  council  on  a  soft  spring  day,  and  where  the  Rope  Workers' 
Union  of  working  women,  or  a  Liberal  Club  from  Westminster,  or 
the  Ladies'  Cycling  Association,  or  the  public  schools  of  Reigate, 
or  the  guild  of  the  '  Poor  Things, '  or  the  Duchess  of  Sutherland's 
Home  for  Boys,  or  the  children  of  the  Catholic  Total  Abstinence 
Society,  or  any  one  of  a  hundred  different  charitable  groups,  have 
permission  to  come  for  a  day's  outing. 

' '  Meanwhile  the  little  yellow-covered  envelope  denoting  a  tel- 
egram is  brought  into  the  '  den '  anywhere  from  ten  to  twenty  times 
a  day,  and  in  the  midst  of  dictating  to  her  skillful  special  stenog- 
rapher, Miss  Edith  Goode,  her  ladyship  replies  to  these  messages, 
steps  out  on  the  lawn  and  speaks  a  few  minutes  to  the  different 
groups  which  are  gathered,  perhaps  some  quite  at  a  distance  from 
the  Priory,  away  by  the  pond  or  near  the  '  Bo  tree, '  a  lovely  little 
room  perched  nearly  sixty  feet  from  the  ground  in  a  great  elm, 
which  a  friend  of  Lady  Henry's  built  for  her  in  the  fond  fancy 
that  she  might  find  retirement  there,  and  in  memory  of  Buddha's 
tree  told  of  in  '  The  Light  of  Asia ' ;  or  the  guests  may  be  in  the 


256  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

courtyards  or  shrubberies,  for  the  grounds  are  so  extensive  that  it 
takes  a  two-mile  walk  to  compass  them  —  conservatories,  kitchen 
gardens,  and  all. 

"Stenography  has  been  the  salvation  of  Lady  Henry,  as  it  is 
of  all  those  who  are  helping  forward  movements  involving  many 
people.  She  has  half  a  dozen  young  women  at  her  command  for 
this  work,  and  her  dictation  covers  not  only  addresses,  but  edito- 
rials for  her  paper,  the  White  Ribbon  Signal,  New  Year  and  other 
occasional  letters  to  the  hundred  thousand  enrolled  women,  of 
whom  she  is  the  leader  in  her  own  country,  leaflets  on  our  different 
lines  of  work,  Gospel  addresses,  Bible  readings,  pleas  for  the 
Armenians,  for  the  homes  she  has  helped  to  build  up,  and  an 
enormous  private  correspondence.  Her  work  constantly  increases, 
and  her  friends  greatly  fear  that  the  present  manner  of  life  may 
undermine  her  health. 

' '  Were  she  not  obliged  to  divide  her  attention  in  a  hundred 
ways,  Lady  Henry  would  become  a  well-known  writer  of  books. 
She  has  put  forth  but  one  thus  far  —  a  little  volume  of  her  experi- 
ence of  working  in  the  slums,  entitled  '  Studies  in  Black  and 
White. '  Of  this  book  some  of  the  most  critical  papers  in  London 
declare  that  it  proves  her  ability,  had  she  the  time,  to  take  high 
rank  among  the  writers  of  short  stories. 

* '  Not  infrequently  her  ladyship  is  called  to  the  telephone  to 
communicate  with  the  headquarters  of  the  White  Ribbon  move- 
ment of  Great  Britain,  which  are  delightfully  located  in  the 
Albany  buildings,  Victoria  street,  London.  About  four  days  in 
the  week  she  goes  to  London,  often  being  driven  over  to  Redhill, 
two  miles  away,  and  thus  getting  about  all  the  out-of-door  air  that 
she  is  to  have  until  her  return,  which  is  rarely  before  six,  seven  or 
eight  in  the  evening.  When  she  has  an  unusually  quiet  day  at 
home,  which  is  as  '  rare  as  a  day  in  June, '  she  avails  herself  (if 
there  are  not  too  many  guests)  of  half  an  hour's  exercise  in  a 
gymnasium  which  she  has  had  fitted  up  after  the  Swedish  manner. 
Here  Miss  Maxwell,  founder  of  the  St.  Botolph  Gymnasium,  in 
Boston,  was  with  us  for  two  summers,  an  expert  of  undoubted 


IN  THE  MOTHER  COUNTRY  257 

skill,  and,  with  her  usual  generosity,  Lady  Henry  opened  the 
gymnasium  without  charge  to  the  young  lady  employes  in  the 
shops  (or  '  stores, '  as  we  should  say) ;  also  to  the  friendless  little 
ones  in  the  Home,  besides  other  groups  of  women  who  greatly 
needed  systematic  exercise. 

' '  Indeed,  if  I  were  to  mention  what  has  impressed  me 
most  in  the  steady  ongoing  of  this  noble  life,  it  would  be  that, 
besides  the  public  giving  in  which  she  is  constantly  engaged,  there 
are  a  thousand  quiet  charities,  helps  afforded  to  individuals,  lifting 
hands  stretched  out  to  young  people  striving  to  start  in  the  world, 
assistance  to  families  who  wish  to  join  their  friends  in  other  parts 
of  the  Empire;  there  is  aid  to  young  authors  and  artists  who 
wish  to  sell  a  drawing  or  a  manuscript,  or  to  poor  women  who 
offer  a  bit  of  lace,  a  knitted  shawl,  or  some  other  little  product  of 
their  industry,  and  a  thousand  other  loving  deeds  of  a  like  nature. 
But  all  these  things  take  time;  and  although  the  private  secretary 
is  the  almoner  of  her  bounty,  and  the  capable  maid  keeps  all  the 
personal  accounts,  the  results  must  be  looked  over  by  their 
principal. 

' '  I  have  not  written  of  the  '  house  parties, '  at  which  from 
twenty  to  thirty  guests  with  their  servants  are  entertained  at  the 
Priory  or  Castle,  often  including  names  in  literature,  art  and  poli- 
tics, in  Church  and  State,  that  are  known  the  world  around.  Of 
the  endless  lecture  trips,  the  committee  meetings  whose  name  'is 
legion,  the  corner-stone  layings,  the  fountain  unveilings,  the  bazaar 
openings,  of  which  she  is  the  central  figure.  With  all  these 
cares,  the  day  speeds  on  so  rapidly  that  one  of  her  most  frequent 
expressions  is,  '  I  have  hardly  got  my  papers  in  order,  and  behold, 
the  day  is  done ! '  A  turn  on  the  bicycle  in  the  shady  evening 
paths,  a  long,  ceremonious  dinner,  coffee  afterward  in  the  Holbein 
hall,  and  an  evening  of  bright  conversation  in  which  Lady  Henry's 
is  always  the  most  musical  voice  and  hers  the  sparkling  wit  and 
comprehensive  statesmanship  of  conversation  to  which  the  others 
like  to  listen,  and  her  difficult  day  '  is  rounded  with  sleep. 


CHAPTER   XII 

ANSWERING   ARMENIA'S    CRY 

EFORE  1892,  people  had  but  vaguely  known  there  was 
such  a  thing  as  an  Armenian  Question.  They  knew  that 
somewhere  beyond  the  mountains  in  Eastern  Turkey,  in 
the  land  that  looks  toward  Ararat  and  the  rising  sun,  a  war  was 
going  on  —  a  religious  war  —  in  which  those  that  suffered  bore  the 
name  of  Christians.  And  yet  the  term  ' '  War  "  implies  the  pos- 
session of  weapons  on  both  sides  and  at  least  a  fighting  chance  for 
the  weaker  to  sell  life  dearly.  Here  the  weapons  were  all  on  one 
side,  the  other  having  nothing  to  oppose  to  them  save  unmailed 
breasts,  clenched  fists,  attempted  flight,  and  hard  endurance  of 
the  inevitable.  There  was  not  much  chance  for  even  individual 
cases  of  fierce  vengeance.  In  this  terrible  plight  were  men, 
women  and  children.  Even  the  unborn  babe  was  snatched  into 
the  world  to  draw  its  first  breath  in  a  shriek  of  agony,  and  die. 
Turks  were  the  aggressors,  Armenians  the  sufferers,  in  this  strange 
war,  and  thus  it  bore  something  of  the  character  of  a  race  conflict. 
The  name  Christian  stood  for  honor  to  marriage  vows  which 
gave  to  Armenian  women  respect  for  themselves  and  reverential 
loyalty  to  their  husbands,  to  Armenian  men  exceptional  upright- 
ness in  domestic  relations,  and  if  some  bearing  the  name  of  Chris- 
tians knew  little  of  Christianity  vitally,  they  yet  held  it  to  the 
death  as  a  symbol  of  their  national  life.  When,  in  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, a  Persian  king  tried  to  force  them  to  exchange  the  Bible  and 
the  name  Christian  for  fire  worship,  they  answered :  ' '  You  have 
your  sword,  and  we  have  our  necks.  We  are  not  better  than  those 
who  have  gone  before  us,  who  gave  up  their  goods  and  their  lives 
for  this  faith. " 

258 


ANSWERING  ARMENIA'S   CRY  259 

For  generation  after  generation  the  Armenians  continued  a 
people  apart,  oppressed,  plunder  for  the  Turk  and  the  freebooting 
mountaineer  Kurds,  who  fed  from  their  harvests,  feasted  on  their 
sheep,  and  carried  away  their  wives  and  daughters,  while  they 
were  forbidden  the  arms  necessary  for  defense. 

No  marvel  that  the  Bible  became  a  sealed  book.  There  were 
only  Moslem  schools  to  teach  boys  to  read  the  Koran.  When  the 
American  missionaries  first  printed  the  Bible  in  a  cheap  form  for 
the  people  and  established  schools  in  which  they  could  learn  to 
read  it,  the  common  people  ' '  heard  the  Word  gladly, "  and  many 
voluntarily  impoverished  themselves  to  the  last  degree  to  possess 
a  copy  of  the  sacred  book. 

Matters  came  to  a  crisis  a  few  years  ago.  The  Great  Powers, 
partly  for  reasons  of  their  own,  made  Armenia  an  ' '  issue. "  Tur- 
key went  wild  with  the  craze  of  greed  and  pride  and  domination 
under  the  name  of  religion.  The  madness  of  the  Turkish  govern- 
ment had  method  in  it.  It  was  a  good  time  to  end  Christian 
Armenia.  So  long  as  it  remained  it  was  a  possible  menace,  and 
it  was  rich  plunder.  The  first  step  was  to  enlist  the  Kurds  in  the 
Turkish  army,  and  set  them  to  police  the  same  Armenian  fields 
which  they  had  plundered  for  three  hundred  years.  The  victims 
had  not  much  with  which  to  resist,  but  now  and  then  the  dead 
body  of  a  Kurdish  ravisher  and  thief  caused  the  report  of  a  great 
revolt.  Then  the  order  went  out  from  the  Sultan,  and  forty 
villages  in  their  fertile  fields  were  burned.  Men,  women  and 
children  died  with  such  bravery,  refusing  life  at  the  price  of  apos- 
tasy, that  the  far,  faint  sound  of  their  martyrdom  stirred  Europe 
to  shame. 

So  they  perished  —  fifty  thousand  in  one  year  —  helpless, 
weaponless.  Massacre  after  massacre  occurred;  men,  women  and 
children  were  penned  together  as  prisoners  and  slaughtered. 
Crops  were  carried  off,  homes  burned,  shops  looted.  They  died 
anywhere,  everywhere,  with  additional  details  of  tortures  too  hor- 
rible for  words.  And  all  this  went  on  like  a  slaughter  behind 


26o  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

closed  doors,  from  which  a  cry,  heard  now  and  then,  was  unno- 
ticed, unrealized,  by  the  passers-by. 

In  1896,  certain  of  the  Armenian  victims  escaped  in  a  friendly 
ship  to  Marseilles  —  with  their  lives,  but  maimed  forever,  bearing 
within  and  without  tokens  of  suffering,  and  of  hideous  memories. 
Here  was  a  young  bride  whose  husband  had  been  slaughtered  in 
the  night,  and  the  pieces  of  his  body  piled  at  her  feet;  here  a  man 
whose  aged  father  had  been  sought  out  in  his  own  home  and  slain; 
here  an  old  woman,  with  a  fine,  firm,  furrowed  face,  who,  alone 
with  her  little  grandson,  had  escaped.  The  day  following,  hav- 
ing hidden  the  little  one,  as  she  watched  for  some  chance  of 
escape,  a  neighbor,  a  trusted  man,  though  a  Turk,  approached. 
He  told  her  the  slayers  were  again  seeking  the  child,  and  if  she 
wished  to  save  him,  she  must  trust  the  boy  to  his  care,  for  they 
would  not  search  a  Moslem  house.  In  her  anxiety  she  brought 
the  child  and  intrusted  him  to  the  false  friend,  only  to  see  him  led 
into  the  courtyard  and  killed.  Here  was  a  poor  creature  burned 
nearly  to  death,  the  Kurds  having  saturated  his  clothing  with  kero- 
sene and  set  it  on  fire.  True  maids  and  faithful  wives  wept 
continually,  hiding  their  faces  from  sight,  for  from  behind  closed 
doors  of  torture  and  death,  poor  wretches,  mad  with  fear,  covered 
with  blood  and  wounds,  rushed  into  the  open  street,  and  fell  with 
a  helpless  appeal  among  the  passers-by. 

In  the  summer  of  1896,  five  hundred  victims  escaped  from  the 
Turkish  shambles  to  Marseilles.  The  French  government  was 
perplexed.  It  feared  ' '  international  complications, "  and  the  poor 
refugees,  penned  in  an  open  barn  by  the  local  authorities,  were 
given  a  few  cents  each  every  day  or  two,  with  which  to  buy 
bread. 

Some  one  saw  in  the  situation  material  for  an  interesting 
letter,  which  was  afterward  published  by  the  London  and  Paris 
newspapers.  This  reached  the  eyes  of  Miss  Willard  and  Lady 
Henry  Somerset,  just  as  they  were  starting  on  a  brief  bicycle  tour 
through  Normandy,  seeking  much-needed  change  and  recuperation 
before  the  long  winter  of  work  began.  They  were  weary  and 


ANSWERING  ARMENIA'S  CRY  261 

worn  almost  to  the  point  of  exhaustion,  but  determined  to  go  at 
once  to  Marseilles. 

They  promptly  opened  communication  with  General  Booth, 
of  the  Salvation  Army,  and  the  grand  old  General,  from  whom 
they  received  cordial  help,  at  once  sent  an  army  officer  to  Mar- 
seilles. They  besieged  the  local  authorities  until  part  of  a  charity 
hospital  was  turned  over  to  their  use.  It  was  three  hundred  years 
old,  damp  and  musty,  but  there  were  great  stone  troughs  of  run- 
ning water  in  the  courtyard.  Miss  Willard  and  Lady  Henry 
Somerset,  with  a  young  missionary  lady  from  Turkey,  who  provi- 
dentially was  able  to  assist  them,  put  things  into  some  degree  of 
comfortable  readiness,  and  there  the  Armenians  were  brought. 

Their  first  problem  was  to  procure  suitable  and  sufficient 
food,  and  soon  they  were  making  soup  by  huge  kettlefuls,  meat 
and  onions  and  red  peppers  bubbling  together,  and  for  each  a 
whole  pound  of  good  bread  was  provided.  The  appetizing  odor 
penetrated  the  bare,  long  halls,  and  those  of  the  weary  creatures 
who  could  not  assist  gathered  about  the  doors  and  eagerly  waited. 
When  all  was  ready,  great  bowls  were  set  in  rows  along  the  floor. 
' '  Surely, "  said  an  aged  priest,  ' '  this  is  the  kitchen  of  Jesus 
Christ";  and  calling  a  young  lad  to  him,  laid  his  old  hands  upon 
the  youth's  head,  and  bade  him  say  grace.  The  boy  repeated  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  and  all  the  people  chanted  "Amen." 

The  building  was  soon  humming  like  a  hive  with  hope  and 
life  and  mutual  helpfulness.  The  young  men  were  washing  clothes 
and  scrubbing  the  floors;  those  who  could  were  cobbling  the 
shoes  of  the  entire  party,  and  the  women  were  cutting  and  sewing 
needful  garments  from  cloth  furnished  by  Miss  Willard  and  Lady 
Henry  Somerset. 

Then  arose  the  problem  of  permanent  provision  for  these 
victims  of  man's  indifference  to  man.  How  to  find  for  them 
places  of  useful  service  to  others  and  support  to  themselves  was 
the  serious  question.  Arrangements  were  made  for  distributing 
two  hundred  on  the  Continent;  one  hundred  Lady  Henry  Somer- 
set took  to  London,  leaving  the  Refuge  Hospital  in  the  hands  of 


262  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

the  Salvation  Army.  Many  begged  to  be  sent  to  America,  which 
was  ' ' the  Lord's  home  for  the  oppressed, "  they  said,  thinking  of 
the  American  missionaries.  Two  hundred  Miss  Willard  brought 
to  this  country  through  the  co-operation  of  noble  and  leading 
White  Ribboners,  some  of  whom  became  personally  responsible 
to  the  United  States  Government  for  twenty-five  refugees  each 
until  they  could  become  self-supporting. 

Miss  Willard  now  appealed  to  America  in  behalf  of  Armenia. 
To  the  country  at  large,  as  a  nation  just,  brave  and  generous;  to 
women  as  the  molders  of  public  opinion,  reverencing  the  name  of 
Christ  and  sympathetic  with  the  downtrodden  and  oppressed;  to 
the  women  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  especially,  as  sisters  loved  and 
faithful  co-laborers  with  her  for  years  in  every  form  of  endeavor; 
to  Christian  ministers,  urging  them  to  devote  a  Sunday  evening 
service  to  the  Armenian  question,  and  to  secure  the  passage  of 
resolutions  of  protest  —  to  all  these  the  cry  went  out.  The  gen- 
eral officers  of  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U.,  under  Miss  Willard's 
leadership,  sent  the  following  earnest  petition  to  Congress: 

"We,  the  officers  of  the  National  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union,  representing  a  membership  and  following  of  not 
fewer  than  a  million  people,  who  believe  that  the  protection  of  the 
home  is  the  supreme  duty  of  statesmen,  do  hereby  most  earnestly 
and  solemnly  beseech  you  to  take  such  action  as  shall  put  our 
home-loving  Republic  on  record  as  having  used  its  moral  and  mate- 
rial influence  for  the  relief  of  Armenia,  the  martyr  nation,  in  the 
time  of  its  supreme  distress.  We  respectfully  urge  that  our  coun- 
try should  no  longer  remain  a  silent  spectator  of  the  agony  and 
outrage  inflicted  by  Moslem  savages  upon  our  brother  and  sister 
Christians,  whose  only  fault  is  their  devotion  to  Christ  and  their 
loyalty  to  a  pure  home. 

' '  We  beg  you,  therefore,  as  the  legally  constituted  representa- 
tives of  the  wives  and  mothers  of  our  nation,  to  give  heed  to  our 
devoted  prayer  and  aspiration  that  America  may,  through  her 
highest  legislative  authorities,  give  expression  to  all  the  world  of 
her  abhorrence  of  the  atrocities  in  Armenia,  and  may  make  an 


ANSWERING  ARMENIA'S  CRY  263 

appropriation  from  the  people's  money  for  the  relief  of  our  brothers 
and  sisters  who  have  been  driven  to  the  last  extremity  by  the  fatal 
fanaticism  of  the  Sultan  and  his  soldiers." 

These  appeals  have  hardly  been  equaled  in  effect  in  the 
annals  of  the  world.  ' '  Sisters,  countrymen, '  she  cried,  ' '  our 
fellow-worshippers  perish  because  they  will  not  apostatize.  An 
ancient  nation  is  being  slaughtered  on  the  plains  of  old  Bible  story. 
Fifty  thousand  victims  slain  under  God's  sky  in  the  slow-moving 
circle  of  a  year!  Women  suffering  indignity  and  death;  children 
tossed  on  the  bayonets  of  Turkish  soldiery;  villages  burned;  star- 
vation the  common  lot.  Now,  even  now,  while  the  sun  is  shining 
on  our  own  safe  homes,  on  the  white  spires  of  our  churches,  on  our 
living  children  in  our  arms,  these  tortures,  these  martyrdoms 
continue. 

"And,  behold!  Europe,  that  promised  so  much  and  so  sin- 
cerely —  Europe,  with  seven  million  soldiers,  and  statesmen  and 
diplomats  clever  as  money-lenders  —  has  neither  statesman,  diplo- 
mat nor  soldier  able  to  save  a  single  helpless  life,  protect  a  single 
helpless  child,  or  give  a  single  loaf  of  bread  to  the  starving  mouths. 
The  Turk  is  a  savage;  our  statesmen  are  —  over-civilized!  The 
Turk  follows  his  will ;  we  follow  our  interests.  His  part  is  the  less 
ignoble  of  the  two." 

The  practical  power  of  Miss  Willard;  the  cool  level-headedness 
which  no  indignation,  pity,  or  scorn  could  disturb;  the  quiet  judg- 
ment as  to  what  could  be  accomplished;  the  careful  choice  of  means 
to  an  end,  was  never  better  shown  than  in  the  general  ' '  field 
order  "  to  her  own  women  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  which  followed.  ' '  I 
call  upon  you  to  organize  meetings  in  every  locality,  urging  our 
government  to  co-operate  with  England  in  putting  a  stop  to  the 
massacre  and  giving  protection  thenceforth  to  Armenian  homes. 
Let  these  meetings  be  addressed  by  the  pastors,  business  men  and 
most  capable  women.  Let  money  be  raised  by  systematic  visita- 
tion as  well  as  by  collection. " 

To  the  women  all  over  the  land  she  said:  "  May  God  so  deal 
with  us  at  last  as  we  deal  with  our  Armenian  sisters  and  brothers, 


264  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

and  their  little  ones,  in  this  hour  of  their  overwhelming  calamity. " 
Appeals  like  these  through  the  aid  of  the  Armenian  Commit- 
tee in  New  York  City  went  out  by  the  hundred  thousand  in  every 
mail.  "Angry?"  Yes!  "  Full  of  indignant  grief?"  Yea,  verily! 
As  Mark  Twain  said,  ' '  I  should  be  ashamed  not  to  be  angry. " 
These  appeals  were  also  full  of  good  sense,  and  they  were  effective. 
Clergymen  gave  a  Sunday  to  Armenia.  A  million  Christians 
united  in  petition.  Money  poured  in.  The  Christian  Herald,  of 
New  York,  rallied  grandly  to  the  rescue,  most  generously  support- 
ing the  cause.  Business  men  gave.  Above  all  were  heaped  the 
offerings  of  the  women,  and  the  Christian  Endeavor  and  other 
young  people's  societies.  They  were  hearing  ' '  the  cry  of  the 
world, "  and  nobly  they  responded,  rilling  full  the  hands  of  Clara 
Barton,  who  sailed  for  Turkey,  under  the  sacred  protection  of  the 
Red  Cross  flag,  bearing  seed  corn  for  the  fallow  fields,  food  for  the 
starving,  garments  for  the  unclothed,  and  hope  and  help  for  all 
whom  hope  and  help  could  reach. 

Of  the  results  that  will  live  in  history  it  is  not  yet  time  to  tell. 
The  work,  in  many  of  its  aspects,  is  still  going  on.  There  is  abun- 
dant testimony  in  confirmation  of  Miss  Willard's  judgment  in 
respect  to  those  who  were  sent  to  this  country,  for  they  are  prov- 
ing themselves  honest,  intelligent  citizens,  of  the  kind  which  Amer- 
ica may  well  be  proud  to  own.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  work 
endeared  Miss  Willard  to  their  hearts  as  nothing  else  could  have 
done.  As  one  of  her  coworkers  stood  by  the  landing-stage  wait- 
ing to  greet  a  party  of  the  immigrants  from  Marseilles  arriving  in 
Portland,  Maine,  a  young  man  among  them,  seeing  her  white  ribbon, 
sprang  forward,  touched  it,  and  bending  low  to  kiss  the  hand  that 
was  extended  in  greeting,  eagerly  repeated  the  one  word  of  English 
that  they  knew — "Willard." 

From  one  of  those  welcomed  to  Massachusetts  comes  this 
touching  tribute: 

1 '  I  sympathize  with  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  for  the  saddest  and  most  unexpected  flight  of  Miss  Frances 
E.  Willard,  the  Lady  of  ladies.  We  read  in  newspapers  and  wept 


ANSWERING  ARMENIA'S  CRY  265 

so  much,  but  in  vain.  She  passed  away,  having  performed  her 
duty.  She  will  not  come  back  again.  But  we  may  turn  to  her. 
This  is  the  lament  of  my  heart  for  her: 

' '  O !  the  single  angel  on  earth, 
How  quick  you  passed  away  from  us! 
O  sweet  Willard,  the  only  Seraph, 
You  sowed  the  seeds  of  kindness  everywhere! 

' '  O  tender-hearted  maiden  of  the  Lord, 
You  were  a  virtuous  and  blessed    Virgin, 
Who  embodied  Jesus  in  her  active  life, 
Who  vibrated  the  strains  of  the  hearts  of  sisters  equally. 
O  the  great  heart,  the  heart  of  hearts,  the  lady  of  ladies! 
Who  reached  the  ends  of  the  wide  world, 
To  uplift  the  fallen  humanity  to  its  Home  Paradise. 
You  did  not  spare  your  last  ability,  energy,  and  even  your 

Precious  life. 
Your  whole  life  has  been  a  sweet  prayer,  a  charming  melody, 

an  inspiration! 
The  body,  the  earthly  tabernacle,  failed  at  last,  while  the  soul 

endured  to  the  end 

And  passed  away  for  largest  spheres  of  services. 
O  Jesu,  bestow  in  us  the  double  spirit  of  hers, 
That  we  may  accomplish  our  best  to  keep  on 
What  she  began  through    Thy  power  on  high 
To  hasten  Thy  kingdom,    O  the  King  of  kings,  the  Lord  of 
Lords!" 

D.  H.  SISLIAM,  for  H.  Hagopian. 

P.  S. —  God  be  with  you  till  we  all  meet  again  in  yonder.  "How  sweet 
and  beautiful  it  is  to  be  with  God." 

Very  cordially  yours, 

THE  SAME. 

The  weeks  spent  in  Marseilles  were  followed  by  days  of  great 
weariness  for  Miss  Willard,  and  reaching  America  in  time  for  the 
National  Convention  in  St.  Louis  in  November,  1896,  she  came 
before  her  beloved  constituency  with  an  annual  message  unwritten 
save  on  the  ' '  red  tablets  of  her  heart. " 

But  she  talked  out  of  that  great  heart  as  never  before,  and  in 
closing  an  address  resistless  in  its  compact  force  she  said: 


266  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

» 

"  I  had  begun  to  dictate  little  slips  of  my  address  when  all  of 
a  sudden  the  savages  of  the  Sultan  put  the  knife  to  the  throat  and 
the  big  bludgeon  to  the  head  of  the  Armenians  in  Constantinople, 
and  soon  after  we  heard  of  the  refugees  in  Marseilles,  without 
shelter  or  food.  Then  something  said  to  me,  '  Why,  those  Armen- 
ians stand  for  your  ideas,  the  White  Ribbon  ideas;  the  sanctity  of 
home  life,  the  faithful  loyalty  of  one  man  to  one  woman;  and  they 
have  illustrated  this  like  no  other  nation  on  the  face  of  the  earth; 
they  lived  it  centuries  before  Mohammed  had  ever  conceived  his 
vile  religion  which  degrades  manhood,  puts  lust  instead  of  love, 
and  makes  woman  a  bond-slave  of  man  in  the  harem  to  which  he 
has  consigned  her. '  And  so  I  said :  '  Yes,  these  are  they  whom  I 
would  like  most  of  all  to  help;  they  love  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord 
and  they  have  laid  their  lives  upon  the  altar  for  Christ. ' 

1 '  And  then  our  missionaries  told  me  how  women  had  leaped 
into  the  rivers  rather  than  have  the  Turk  pounce  with  his  heavy 
hand  upon  them ;  they  told  me  of  members  of  their  schools,  sweet 
young  girls,  who  had  thrown  themselves  into  the  flames  of  the 
Christian  church  at  Sassoun  because  the  Turkish  officers  pursued 
the  youngest  and  fairest  of  them  to  take  them  away.  They  told 
me  things  not  lawful  to  utter  of  what  young  husbands  suffered  in 
the  presence  of  the  young  wives  who  were  true  to  them  and  who 
with  them  endured  a  double  death  in  the  open  streets.  And  I  said 
in  my  heart,  '  That  is  God's  nation,  and  I  am  going  to  Marseilles 
to  help.'  [Applause.] 

' '  Now  I  only  want  to  say  one  thing  more,  though  I  kept  it  as 
a  little  secret,  but  you  do  not  know  what  waves  and  storms  I  came 
over  to  get  here.  Some  of  the  friends  of  Armenia  in  the  dear  old 
mother  country  urged  me  to  go  to  Jerusalem  and  see  the  patriarch, 
whom  the  Sultan  has  dismissed,  to  see  if  I  could  not  bring  him  to 
England  to  stand  up  in  his  patriarchal  robes  and  tell  his  story  to 
the  people. 

' '  There  was  another  plan  to  go  to  the  help  of  the  Catholicus, 
who  is  at  the  head  of  the  whole  Armenian  church,  and  who  has  an 
army  of  refugees  around  him ;  or  to  Cyprus,  where  it  is  proposed 


ANSWERING  ARMENIA'S  CRY  267 

to  found  a  colony  for  the  women  and  children.  Oh,  it  all  looked 
so  heavenly  to  do;  but  I  said,  'There  are  older  ties;  there  is  a 
deep,  throbbing  chord  between  me  and  the  White  Ribbon  women 
of  my  country,  and  though  I  could  not  leave  England  until  I  knew 
whether  my  native  land  would  welcome  the  Armenians,  I  came  to 
you  with  a  glad  heart,  although  there  was  work  —  a  holy  work  — 
and  a  great-hearted  comrade  whom  I  left  behind.  [Applause.] 

' '  And  now,  beloved  ones,  with  your  kind,  familiar,  responsive 
faces,  I  want  to  tell  you  why  our  beloved  Lady  Henry  is  not  here. 
It  is  because  she  is  going  to  work  for  the  Armenians  in  the  ways  I 
have  described  and  many  more.  It  is  because  she  and  the  British 
White-Ribboners  have  established  a  farm  village  for  inebriate 
women;  because  she  is  now  holding  her  executive  committee,  one 
hundred  strong,  in  Edinburgh ;  it  is  because  she  is  devoted  to  work 
for  the  Armenians  that  this  year  she  could  not  come,  but  she  said, 
1  If  I  have  the  breath  of  life  I  shall  come  to  America  next  year  to 
attend  the  National  and  Dominion  Conventions  and  the  World's 
Convention. '  [Applause.  ]  I  want  to  hold  you  just  a  moment  to 
speak  of  the  Polyglot  Petition,  which  has  been  presented  to  the 
Queen  in  the  most  magnificent  volumes  I  ever  saw,  with  engrossed 
covers  in  delicate,  artistic  coloring,  by  the  finest  artists  in  London, 
with  every  British  name  photographed,  embellished  with  our  mono- 
gram, a  white  ribbon  trailing  across  outside;  and  each  volume  is  so 
big  that  I  could  hardly  lift  it,  and  Lady  Henry  had  these  made 
herself.  She  said,  '  The  petition  shall  go  to  the  Queen  of  all  the 
British  Empire  in  such  a  way  that  she  will  know  what  the  White 
Ribbon  movement  means.' ' 

Miss  Willard's  extempore  address  at  this  convention  occupied 
nearly  an  hour.  Her  great  audience  of  eager  listeners  cheered  her 
on  with  responsive  enthusiasm  and  a  hush  fell  on  their  tender 
hearts  as  her  closing  words  graphically  described  the  awful  accident 
in  connection  with  the  coronation  of  the  young  ' '  Czar  of  all  the 
Russias. " 

Two  scenes  have  stamped  themselves  indelibly  on  the  brain 
of  the  world:  First,  the  Czar,  blazing  with  diamonds,  guarded  by 


268  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

soldiers  standing  so  closely  together  that  they  were  practically 
visible  for  the  whole  length  of  the  road  from  St.  Petersburg  to 
Moscow,  four  hundred  miles  away;  not  the  smallest  detail  forgot- 
ten that  could  guard  him  from  danger,  not  the  least  token  of  self- 
prostration  that  humanity  could  exhibit  lacking  from  the  amazing 
and  to  thoughtful  minds  the  shocking  spectacle  of  his  ' '  apotheosis. " 
Second,  the  great  plain  outside  Moscow,  where  half  a  million  peas- 
ant people  gathered,  brimming  with  ignorance  and  loyalty,  to 
receive  a  pewter  mug  and  a  piece  of  cake  in  memory  of  the 
pageant  they  had  watched  from  afar. 

But  human  life  is  cheap  where  Emperors  reign;  for  it  is  a 
natural  law  that  the  artificial  aggrandizement  of  one  is  in  exact 
proportion  to  the  minimizing  of  the  mass.  What  the  one  gets  the 
mass  misses;  and  so  for  the  mass  on  the  plains  there  were  no 
guardians,  no  police,  no  disciplined  host  to  hold  them  in  order. 
If  they  had  been  cattle  their  value  would  have  led  to  a  careful  dis- 
tribution of  drovers  who  would  have  taken  care  that  they  did  each 
other  no  harm ;  but  they  were  only  peasants  —  and  to  the  number 
of  these  Russia  adds  a  million  a  year;  so  they  were  left  to  them- 
selves; and  lacking  the  power  of  self-protection,  at  first  the  inertia, 
and  afterward  the  momentum  of  their  vast  bulk  forced  them  liter- 
ally to  walk  on  one  another.  As  one  peasant  said:  "When  I 
reached  my  hand  to  take  the  cup  I  knew  I  was  standing  on  the  soft 
body  of  a  woman."  Six  thousand  were  trampled  to  death,  and 
six  thousand  more  were  wounded.  What  an  offering  this  to  the 
Czar! 

Journalists  who  describe  the  catastrophe  say  that  there  was  no 
screaming  or  demonstration  of  any  kind,  but  all  through  that  mass 
of  humanity  could  be  noted  an  undertone  of  unspeakable  agony 
too  terrible  to  hear,  like  the  wail  of  the  waves  on  the  shore.  It 
was  the  voiceless  heartbreak  of  the  oppressed.  It  has  surged  out 
through  the  nations;  it  is  borne  on  breezes  to  the  West;  it  was  the 
cry  of  ignorance  that  might  have  been  knowledge;  weakness  that 
might  have  been  power;  misery  that  might  have  been  happiness; 
and  —  most  heart-breaking  of  all  —  it  was  the  wail  of  faith  that 


ANSWERING  ARMENIA'S  CRY 


269 


had  failed  and  loyalty  that  had  been  crushed  under  the  heel  of  the 
most  massive  despotism  that  still  remains  to  curse  the  world. 

We  are  told  that  Russia  is  the  strongest  of  all  governments, 
and  she  has  proved  it  by  her  power  to  trample  on  the  great  host  of 
her  subjects,  not  on  the  wide  plain  near  Moscow,  but  across  the 
great  empire,  from  Siberia  to  the  Baltic.  We  are  not  inveighing 
against  the  young  Czar;  he  is  but  the  puppet  of  his  predecessors; 
he  cannot  do  other  than  carry  out  the  traditions  of  his  nation; 
indeed,  we  are  kindly  disposed  toward  him  and  his  young  consort, 
and  have  tender  hopes  that  this  calamity  may  touch  their  hearts, 
already  kind,  to  greater  devotion  toward  their  people,  so  loyal  and 
distressed ;  and  we  pray  that  the  martyred  Armenians  may  yet  find 
outstretched,  for  their  deliverance,  the  iron  arm  of  the  "White 
Czar  "  in  his  character  of  * '  Little  Father, "  as  the  faithful  peasants 
love  to  call  him. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

OLD    HAUNTS    AND    HOMES    REVISITED 


' ' '  Tis  not  in  battles  that  from  youth  we  train 

The  governor  who  must  be  wise  and  good, 

And  temper  with  the  sternness  of  the  brain 

Thoughts  motherly,  and  meet  as  womanhood. 

Wisdom  doth  live  with  children  round  her  knees: 
Books,  leisure,  perfect  freedom,  and  the  talk 
Man  holds  with  week-day  man  in  the  hourly  walk 

Of  the  mind's  business:  these  are  the  degrees 

By  which  true  Sway  doth  mount;  this  is  the  stalk 

True  Power  doth  grow  on;  and  her  rights  are  these." 

ORDSWORTH'S  sonnet,  the  last  words  Miss  Willard 
committed  to  memory,  gives  her  ideal  of  home. 
''Thoughts  motherly,  and  meet  as  womanhood," 
blessed  her  childhood,  and  a  woman  she  went  out  to  bless  the 
homes  of  all  the  world.  The  sanctities  of  motherhood  were  not 
denied  her,  since  she  made  sweeter  the  sleep  and  safer  the  steps  of 
every  little  child.  She  was  a  fireside  being  and  found  a  place  by  a 
hundred  hearths,  consecrating  and  quickening  the  flame  that  was 
kindled  on  each,  while  she  loved  her  own  home  with  all  the  purity 
and  enthusiasm  of  her  nature. 

When  we  remember  the  child  in  her  daily  frolics  and  rambles 
and  tender  twilight  dreamings  at  Forest  Home,  the  young  woman 
planting  trees  with  her  father  in  Evanston  and  noting  all  the  magic 
play  of  nature,  we  comprehend  that  home  was  not  a  platitude  but 
a  plenitude  to  this  woman  of  ideals.  In  its  quintessence  of  inti- 
macy, endearment  and  sympathy  it  comforted  her,  but  as  a  type 
of  universal  kindness  it  warmed  her  imagination.  Her  soul  builded 

270 


OLD  HAUNTS  AND  HOMES  REVISITED  271 

ever  ' '  more  stately  mansions, "  but  it  never  forgot  its  primitive  sur- 
roundings, its  growing-cells.  Nature,  Humanity,  God,  became  her 
"dwelling  place,"  through  which  she  passed  right  graciously  to  her 
last  home,  yet  loving  to  linger  at  each  dear  stopping  place,  each 
tenement  of  all  the  way.  Fast  outgrowing  the  earthly  garment  of 
the  flesh,  Miss  Willard  turned  in  these  last  months  with  all  her 
tenacious  purpose  toward  revisiting  those  places  which  had  shel- 
tered her  as  child,  maiden  and  woman,  shutting  her  away,  in  their 
sweet  restfulness,  from  the  world  to  which  she  belonged. 

In  the  mother  country  she  had  gone  through  quiet  fields  and 
flowery  byways  to  the  village  of  Horsmonden,  in  Kent,  where  lived 
those  stanch  English  lives  that  bequeathed  such  resistless  courage 
and  unspent  energy  to  their  descendants.  In  the  registry  of  the 
parish  church  she  saw  the  name  of  Simon  Willard,  with  the  date 
of  his  baptism,  and  under  the  spell  of  by-gone  years,  standing  in 
the  high-perched  pulpit,  she  recited  Mrs.  Hemans'  hymn: 

' '  The  breaking  waves  dashed  high 

On  a  stern  and  rockbound  coast, 
And  the  woods  against  a  stormy  sky 
Their  giant  branches  tossed  ; 

"And  the  heavy  night  hung  dark 

The  hills  and  waters  o'er, 
When  a  band  of  exiles  moored  their  bark 
On  the  wild  New  England  shore." 

It  was  the  first  home  revisited,  a  mystic  and  sentient  hour  for 
our  leader,  a  realization  of  those  primal  unities  which  make  America 
one  with  England.  The  old  Horsmonden  church  now  holds  a  com- 
memorative tablet  presented  by  Miss  Willard  as  an  expression  of 
her  gratitude  for  the  inheritance  of  ' '  a  good  great  name. " 

After  the  St.  Louis  Convention  in  November,  1896,  Castile, 
New  York,  was  selected  as  a  winter  residence  and  became  a 
genuine  home  through  the  constant  thoughtfulness  and  gracious 
personality  of  the  presiding  genius  of  its  sanitarium,  Dr.  Cordelia  A. 
Greene,  whom  Miss  Willard  was  wont  to  describe  as  the  essence 


272  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

of  strength  and  gentleness  in  combination,  a  chemical  amalgam  of 
scientist  and  saint.  The  home  group  that  drew  about  Miss  Wil- 
lard  in  pretty  ' '  Daily  Cottage  "  included  a  blessed  mother  and  her 
trio  of  daughters,  and  was  the  circle  closest  to  her  whose  practical 
thought  and  genial  fancy  directed  and  beautified  the  winter. 

Of  Castile  Miss  Willard  writes :  "I  wish  you  could  see  this 
little  Western  village  on  top  of  its  hill  and  under  its  ice  and  snow. 
It  abounds  in  fine  tall  elms  and  maples,  although  they  do  not  con- 
sole one  very  much  these  days!  But  its  evergreens  are  a  real 
comfort,  a  protection  when  we  sit  out  '  breathing  deeply '  on  these 
cold  wintry  mornings,  and  sometimes  when  the  heavens  are  bril- 
liant and  the  angle  of  vision  just  right  I  can  see  the  flush  of  leaves 
that  are  to  be  in  the  top  of  a  lovely  willow  that  lifts  its  symmetrical 
proportions  just  across  the  street. " 

This  sensitiveness  to  the  charms  of  nature  gave  vividness 
and  pathos  to  every  phase  of  Miss  Willard's  home  life,  even  when 
she  made  home  of  transient  tarrying  places  where  she  stopped  but 
a  day.  Her  acute  acquisitive  spirit  attracted  to  itself  immediately 
the  distinguishing  qualities  of  the  landscape.  The  mind  that  saw 
' '  the  flush  of  leaves  that  are  to  be  "  naturally  saw  infinite  things 
besides,  and  the  fragile  form  accentuated  the  mystery  and  variety 
of  the  soul's  expression. 

A  delightful  interruption  to  the  usual  routine  was  Miss  Susan 
B.  Anthony's  visit,  the  experience  of  which  Miss  Willard  shared 
with  her  comrades  in  a  letter  to  the  Union  Signal:  ' '  It  was  a 
bright  sunny  day  in  this  upland  town,  fifteen  hundred  feet  above 
the  sea  level.  I  cleared  my  writing  room  for  our  dear  friend,  and 

A went  to  the  station  to  meet  her.     We  gathered  in  a  group 

at  the  door  as  they  drew  up,  it  being  my  intention  to  '  help  Susan 
out. '  But  I  saw  that  anybody  less  swift  of  foot  than  a  football 
expert  need  make  no  such  attempt.  Forth  stepped  Miss  Anthony, 
seventy-seven  years  of  age,  with  traveling  bag  and  umbrella,  her 
movements  as  balanced  and  agile  as  they  were  a  half  century  ago, 
her  face  lighting  up  with  smiles  and  the  cheery  '  How  are  you  ?  '  as 
she  walked  in,  bringing  a  breeziness  that  seemed  perennial.  As  a 


EARLIEST  PORTRAIT-8  YEARS.  STUDENT-18  YEARS. 

LATEST  PORTRAIT-58  YEARS. 

PRECEPTRESS  LIMA  SEMINARY-28  YEARS.  DEAN  WOMAN'S  COLLEGE-34  YEARS 

PRESIDENT  W.  C.  T.  U.—48  YEARS. 


OLD  HAUNTS  AND  HOMES  REVISITED  273 

matter  of  course,  we  sat  down  for  a  talk,  which  continued  with 
slight  interruption  until  the  afternoon  of  the  next  day,  each  one 
'  getting  in  a  word '  as  opportunity  offered,  and  very  likely  each 
saying  to  herself,  '  There,  she  has  stopped  to  breathe,  now  comes 
my  chance. 

This  picture  of  Miss  Willard  as  a  hostess  will  be  widely  recog- 
nized. Outgoing,  inclusive,  comprehensive,  instantly  en  rapport 
with  her  guest,  feeling  with  electric  rapidity  the  subtle  combination 
of  the  forces  to  be  met,  she  rose  to  every  occasion  and  adapted 
herself  perfectly  to  the  varying  phases  of  thought  and  feeling  in 
other  minds. 

It  was  at  Castile  as  she  sped  her  parting  guest,  Mrs.  J.  K. 
Barney,  of  Rhode  Island,  just  starting  for  Australia  as  our  White 
Ribbon  missionary,  that  Miss  Willard  gave  utterance  to  such 
vigorous  words  of  faith  in  the  work  and  the  worker  as  sent  her 
forth  like  an  officer  in  the  great  army  inspired  by  the  commands 
of  a  general. 

Never  did  Miss  Willard's  working  power  seem  more  creative. 
Editorials,  articles  for  the  newspapers ;  plans  for  a  birthday  celebra- 
tion for  Neal  Dow;  eager  sympathy  and  effort  for  Armenia;  "A 
Woman's  Plea  for  the  Purification  of  the  Press";  plans  for  the 
"  W.  C.  T.  U.  New  Year,"  made  during  visits  from  a  number  of 
temperance  experts;  a  "  lift "  for  the  local  union  when  dearly  loved 
White-Ribboners  spoke  under  its  auspices;  an  evening  of  fun  for 
the  Sanitarium  patients  —  all  these  entered  into  the  winter's 
activity. 

With  spring's  coming  she  drooped;  the  physical  energy  that 
had  been  gained  by  unfailing  response  to  her  wise  physician's 
behests  slowly  ebbed  away  and  it  was  believed  a  stay  at  Atlantic 
City  would  refresh  the  weary  worker.  With  deep  concern  it  was 
seen  that  ocean  breeze  and  varied  seaside  life  failed  to  bring  the 
wished-for  strength.  For  three  weeks  she  was  in  the  open  air, 
much  of  the  time  in  her  rolling  chair,  looking  out  over  the  wide 
expanse  of  ocean  dictating  correspondence  and  articles,  letting  the 
tides  of  human  life  and  the  sea  make  fuller  her  spirit's  vigor,  while 

18 


274  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

the  body  gained  only  small  treasure  of  strength,  and  the  pathetic 
whiteness  of  her  face  told  its  own  sad  story.  During  the  stay  in 
Atlantic  City  an  excursion  was  made  to  Washington,  D.  C.,  where 
Miss  Willard  spent  a  memorable  Sunday  as  a  guest  at  Cedar  Hill, 
the  home  of  Mrs.  Frederick  Douglass.  Returning  to  the  seashore, 
she  welcomed  Miss  Jackson,  then  on  her  way  to  Germany,  and  a 
week  of  reminiscence  and  prophecy  was  given  to  these  friends  of 
"  Auld  Lang  Syne."  It  was  fitting  that  this  their  last  visit  together 
should  take  place  in  New  Jersey  near  the  hospitable  Jackson  home 
from  which  the  young  friends  years  ago  had  set  out  upon  their 
European  travels. 

On  May  sixth  Miss  Willard  spoke  in  Broadway  Tabernacle, 
New  York  City,  fulfilling  a  long  deferred  promise  that  an  address 
should  be  given  by  the  National  President  to  the  State  securing 
the  largest  number  of  new  members  during  the  year,  and  a  similar 
promise  was  redeemed  for  New  Jersey  by  an  address  at  Jersey 
City  five  evenings  later. 

Then  for  five  weeks  in  the  shadow  of  Cambridge  University 
she  rested  by  a  congenial  fireside  and  enjoyed  in  her  hostess  a 
woman  of  rare  culture  and  most  entertaining  originality.  Who- 
ever knows  Cambridge  needs  no  description  of  its  richness  of 
romance  and  erudition,  and  the  rare  charm  of  its  gracious  hospitality. 
Miss  Willard  took  daily  drives  behind  a  gentle,  slow-paced  Nor- 
wegian pony  lent  her  by  the  poet  Longfellow's  daughter  ' '  Laugh- 
ing Allegra. "  ' '  How  little  I  thought, "  said  the  guest,  ' '  when  a 
child  in  my  linsey-woolsey  gown  on  a  Wisconsin  farm,  that 
'  Laughing  Allegra '  would  ever  lend  me  her  pony,  but  so  it  was  to 
be.  It  was  probably  because  I  knew  and  loved  them  long  ago  that 
I  am  near  them  now."  Here  in  the  quiet  family  life,  ministered  to 
by  devoted  friends,  Miss  Willard  became  stronger,  and  in  June  she 
started  northward  toward  the  hills,  settling  for  the  summer  months 
at  Hotel  Ponemah,  in  Milford  Springs,  eight  hundred  feet  above 
the  sleepy  little  village  of  Amherst,  New  Hampshire,  noble  in 
situation  with  a  restful  prospect  of  farm  lands  and  hills  filling  the 
wide  western  horizon.  In  the  weeks  that  followed,  Nature  sought 


OLD  HAUNTS  AND  HOMES  REVISITED  275 

her  child,  and  she  lent  her  ear  and  eye  to  all  the  tender,  coaxing 
sights  and  signs  about  her.  Laying  her  tired  head  upon  that 
tireless  heart,  breathing  deep  fragrant  inhalations,  she  heard  those 
well-known  chirpings  and  whisperings,  the  speech  of  insect  and 
leaf  that  had  wooed  her  in  her  girlhood.  On  a  drive  between  the 
hotel  and  Milford,  she  counted  seventy  varieties  of  trees  and  shrubs 
and  recorded  them  for  her  pleasure.  Noting  intently  every  passing 
expression  of  summer  —  that  last  sweet  summer  of  her  earthly 
life  —  she  dwelt  with  childlike  joy  on  every  fern  and  flower  and 
singing  bird.  Her  love  of  birds  was  more  than  a  fondness,  it  was 
an  affinity.  As  a  girl  she  had  dreamed  of  all  things  free,  and  her 
last  verse  was  to  celebrate  that  longing  for  flight  she  shared  with 
every  winged  thing. 

But  even  into  this  summer  idyl  would  break  the  human  love, 
the  longing  for  distant  friends  or  the  ever-present  mindfulness  of 
whatever  by  her  side  might  creep  or  cling,  and  we  note  this  mem- 
orandum carefully  fastened  to  her  dressing  table  and  as  carefully 
carried  out :  ' '  August  17  —  Go  to  see  the  ninety-five  year  old  lady ; 
also  the  paralyzed  woman  who  lives  at  the  foot  of  the  hill.  Take 
to  each  of  them  some  magazine,  or  picture  book,  or  something. " 

The  village  of  Chesham,  once  a  part  of  Dublin,  New  Hamp- 
shire, is  but  a  few  miles  west  of  Milford  Springs,  and  there,  toward 
the  last  of  the  season,  Miss  Willard  spent  a  happy  holiday  at 
Brookside  Farm  with  the  descendants  of  her  great-great-grand- 
father, Elder  Elijah  Willard,  who  for  forty  years  preached  in  the 
Baptist  church  of  the  village.  Over  shady  roads  reminding  her 
of  English  lanes  she  drove  through  sloping  farm  country  in  sight  of 
Mount  Monadnock,  recounting  the  adventures  of  * '  that  trip  with 
father  "  forty  years  before,  when  she  went  east  to  take  ' '  Nineteen 
Beautiful  Years"  for  publication,  and  when  all  the  relatives  were 
visited  and  the  first  mountain  seen  by  the  prairie-girl  traveler. 
Sunday  morning  she  sat  in  the  old  church  that  had  been  but  little 
changed  in  the  changing  years,  and  at  the  Young  People's  service 
of  praise  in  the  evening  she  spoke  tender  words  of  recollection  and 
cheer.  She  drove  up  the  steep  hills  to  the  low-studded  home- 


276  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

stead  in  which  Elder  Willard  lived  and  died,  and  standing  on  the 
quaint  porch,  shading  her  eyes  with  her  delicate  hand,  she  drank 
her  fill  of  majestic  Monadnock,  and  turning  to  Mount  Willard  on 
her  right  remarked:  "Yes,  these  are  the  old  haunts  from  which  I 
received  my  original  fibers. " 

Monday  morning,  after  a  chat  with  an  aged  farmer  who  had 
known  the  Elder  well  and  who  every  few  minutes  would  say  with 
strong  emphasis,  ' '  Yes,  Elder  Willard  was  a  beautiful  man, "  Miss 
Willard  drove  to  her  ancestor's  grave  and  placed  there  a  bunch  of 
water  lilies,  the  floral  emblem  of  the  World's  W.  C.  T.  U.  Many 
calls  were  made  on  those  related  by  ties  of  kindred  and  affection 
to  the  pastor  beloved,  many  stories  of  his  progressive  views  and 
vsound  judgment  were  enjoyed,  and  Miss  Willard  was  like  a  happy 
child,  her  overflowing  spirits  communicating  themselves  to  all 
about  her. 

August  seventh  found  her  in  Ogunquit,  the  guest  of  near  and 
dear  friends  summering  there.  These  days  on  the  rugged  Maine 
coast  had  in  them  the  true  witchery  of  the  sea.  A  thoroughgoing 
clambake,  a  ride  on  the  white  smooth  beach  on  her  bicycle,  dictat- 
ing daily  from  a  rock  if  not  a  rocking-chair,  exulting  in  the  sunlight 
and  the  sunsets,  the  days  went  on  full  of  thought  for  the  conven- 
tions soon  to  meet.  Portland  was  close  at  hand,  and  for  a  few 
days  she  was  a  guest  in  that  city  while  earnest  convention  plans 
were  made  with  her  closest  coadjutors  in  National  and  World's 
work.  Touching,  in  the  light  of  days  to  be,  was  her  last  interview 
at  this  time  with  Gen.  Neal  Dow;  a  talk  keyed  to  the  harmony  of 
heaven  between  two  associated  in  lifework  and  so  soon  to  enter 
upon  eternal  endeavor. 

With  the  last  days  of  August  she  said  good-by  to  the  sea 
' '  down  in  the  haven, "  and  felt  again  the  impulse  of  the  hill  country 
as  she  started  to  visit  the  homes  of  her  father  and  mother  in  Ver- 
mont. They  were  a  hill-born  race  and  acquired  among  that 
uplifted  company  their  wide-eyed  vision.  Eleven  miles  only  sep- 
arated the  lad  and  lassie  Josiah  and  Mary.  The  girl  grew  on  the 
breezy  plateau  of  Danville,  with  its  distant  sky-line  curved  with 


OLD  HAUNTS  AND  HOMES  REVISITED  277 

mountains  and  its  hushed  pasture  lands  —  a  far-seeing  place  —  and 
she  did  not  know  the  boy  who  from  the  heights  above  Wheelock 
Hollow  was  looking  out  on  the  same  magnificent  range  of  the 
White  Mountains.  Nature  was  in  her  most  imperial  mood  that 
August  thirtieth  when  she  stood  on  the  spot  where  her  revered 
mother  had  been  given  to  the  world,  and  planted  a  fragrant  balsam 
and  a  sturdy  pine,  symbols  of  the  two  lives  that  had  meant  the 
most  to  her.  There,  surrounded  by  home-folk  who  claimed  her  as 
a  daughter,  a  sister,  a  mother  beloved,  Miss  Willard  made  one  of 
those  speeches  which  search  out  the  heart.  Old  men  and  women 
wept  like  children,  and  one  man  summed  it  up  in  a  sentence  as  the 
most  ' '  homey  talk  "  he  had  ever  heard.  Oh,  the  blessed  memory 
of  that  day !  Writes  one  who  was  present :  ' '  Do  you  remember 
how  with  almost  girlish  glee  she  threw  the  earth  over  the  roots  of 
the  trees  and  dashed  the  water  on?"  As  she  drove  from  the  village, 
followed  by  the  love  and  ' '  God  bless  you "  of  the  country  folk, 
there  were  two  stopping  places  on  the  way  —  one.  to  visit  the  quiet 
graveyard  where  she  lovingly  placed  flowers  on  the  hillock  that 
marked  the  resting  place  of  ' '  mother's  deskmate  in  the  long  ago, " 
the  other  to  enter  the  home  of  an  invalid  White-Ribboner  and  to 
leave  with  her  bright  blossoms  before  the  hand  that  eagerly  grasped 
them  should  be  still  forever.  From  Danville  she  drove  to  Wheel- 
ock, planted  snowball  bushes  at  her  uncle's  grave,  visited  the 
Willard  Farm  —  her  father's  birthplace  —  and  was  loath  to  leave 
the  ' '  sugar  bush, "  whose  kingly  maples  were  the  boys'  most  wor- 
shiped sylvan  divinities. 

,  Once  more  in  Milford  Springs  she  reveled  in  Shakespeare's 
plays,  English  and  American  history,  and  held  "quiz  classes"  in 
the  twilight  hours  under  the  trees,  catching  the  first  notes  of 
autumn's  melody,  the  soft  low  strain  of  Nature's  lullaby.  She  took 
a  lingering  farewell  of  loving  mother  earth.  Can  we  picture  it?— 
this  slight  figure  with  its  pathetic  movements  of  weariness  and 
occasional  buoyant  gestures  of  life  and  expectancy?  Here  the 
sisters,  Mary  (from  Germany)  and  Frances,  spent  that  day  together, 
of  which  Mrs.  Willard  writes :  ' '  Frances  could  not  talk  fast 


278  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

enough.  She  wanted  me  to  know  so  many  things,  old  secrets,  new 
hopes  and  plans.  How  heavenly  she  was  even  then!  Out  in  the 
morning  sunshine  on  the  veranda  she  threw  open  her  arms  to  the 
sky  and  exclaimed,  '  O  universe,  what  thou  desirest  I  desire ! '  So 
at  one  was  she  with  the  divine  of  heaven  and  earth,  so  heavenly,  at 
the  same  time  never  so  human.  I  have  rarely  seen  her  in  a  more 
tender,  loving  attitude  toward  every  friend  of  now  and  then.  Her 
very  last  whisper  in  my  ear  at  the  station  was  one  that  breathed 
love  of  kin  and  fellowship  with  all  of  us  who  are  left  to  mourn  her. " 

The  poetry  of  friendship  and  nature  were  but  a  part  of  those 
halcyon  days.  During  the  hours  bounded  by  the  sunrise  and 
sunset,  thought  at  its  intensest  stretch  kept  pace  with  time,  and  it 
was  her  spirit  that  got  through  the  work.  Yet  her  strength  seemed 
largely  regained,  and  she  went  bravely  forward  with  preparations  for 
the  convention  —  that  yearly  home-coming  she  loved  the  best  of 
all.  The  vacation  over,  a  soft  September  day  was  spent  in  Still 
River,  Massachusetts,  on  her  way  to  Skaneateles,  New  York. 
Still  River  held  the  attraction  of  a  home  built  by  Henry  Willard, 
great-grandfather  of  Miss  Willard's  great-grandfather,  and  a  gifted 
relative,  a  true  Willard,  who  with  his  two  maiden  sisters  entertained 
her  with  spicy  conversation,  not  forgetting  more  substantial  delica- 
cies. In  a  Quaker  home  at  Skaneateles,  a  home  full  of  memory's 
pictures,  the  charming  colonial  country  seat  of  one  very  dear,  Miss 
Willard  completed  her  addresses  for  Toronto  and  Buffalo,  and  all 
too  soon  came  the  hour  for  stepping  out  into  the  great  world  that 
awaited  her. 

In  Toronto,  in  October,  Miss  Willard,  in  a  foreign  yet  a  home 
land,  presented  the  crowning  message  of  her  life.  She  was  strong 
in  her  beauty,  and  never  had  she  seemed  so  lifted  up  in  the  sweep 
of  her  thought  and  the  brilliancy  of  her  leadership. 

On  ' '  Children's  Night, "  in  Massey  Music  Hall,  when  she  stood 
a  graceful  figure,  her  face  aglow  with  light  and  love  against  a  back- 
ground of  one  thousand  little  people  waving  to  her  their  enthusias- 
tic welcome,  many  hearts  said  she  will  never  look  nearer  to  heaven 
than  she  does  tonight,  no  matter  how  many  years  of  her  pilgrimage 
remain. 


OLD  HAUNTS  AND  HOMES  REVISITED  279 

At  Buffalo,  in  the  convention  that  followed,  some  who  4 '  saw  " 
tell  us  they  detected  already  the  look  of  change  upon  her  face,  that 
expression  which  separates  mortals  about  to  become  immortal. 
Certainly  when  in  an  hour  of  transcendent  renunciation  she  was 
ready  to  give  home  and  the  new  year  of  her  life  upon  which  she 
had  just  entered  to  the  lifting  of  a  material  burden  far  out-measur- 
ing her  fragile  health,  her  friends  felt  something  of  the  limitless 
strength  of  her  spirit.  One  picture  of  those  days  will  be  forever 
treasured,  when,  behind  the  flower-laden  desk,  the  president,  still 
directing  the  thousand  women  before  her,  bent  to  write  a  message 
to  a  college  girl  whose  heart  was  breaking  with  her  first  sorrow, 
and  in  the  midst  of  all  the  queenly  homage  of  the  hour  ' '  forgot 
herself  "  as  ever  in  the  sweet  consideration  of  another  life.  It  was 
a  typical  moment  in  the  career  of  the  beautiful  crowned  woman- 
hood whose  boundless  spiritual  affluence  could  plan  for  humanity, 
or  touch  with  a  mother's  pity  the  grief  of  the  tenderest  human 
thing. 

At  the  close  of  the  Buffalo  convention  Miss  Willard  went  to 
Churchville,  New  York,  her  birthplace,  for  a  Sunday  with  beloved 
relatives.  The  morning  was  spent  with  the  only  surviving  relative 
of  her  mother's  generation,  "Aunt  Sarah,"  and  in  the  afternoon 
she  met  the  White-Ribboners  in  the  Methodist  church.  After  the 
service,  two  by  two  they  walked  to  the  house  where  Miss  Willard 
was  born.  Seeking  out  the  very  room  into  which  the  little  stranger 
came,  standing  closely  about  their  leader,  they  heard  her  talk  of 
motherhood  and  of  the  great  home  to  which  she  was  looking,  now 
that  her  mother's  ear  would  never  again  hear  her  returning  foot- 
steps. 

It  was  in  that  room  the  mother-love  had  hung  over  the  cradle 
of  the  child  Frances  as  the  star  hung  over  the  babe  in  the  manger 
of  Bethlehem.  It  was  her  coming  that  called  forth  these  words  of 
Mother  Willard  in  the  last  year  of  her  earthly  life: 

"Motherhood  is  life's  richest  and  most  delicious  romance. 
And  sitting  now  in  the  sunshine  calm  and  sweet  with  all  my  pre- 
cious ones  on  the  other  side  save  only  the  daughter  who  so  faithfully 


28o  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

cherishes  me  here,  I  thank  God  that  he  ever  said  to  me  '  Bring  up 
this  child  for  me  in  the  love  of  humanity  and  the  expectation  of 
immortal  life.'  My  life  could  not  have  held  more  joy,  if  some 
white-robed  messenger  of  the  skies  had  come  to  me  and  said  '  I 
will  send  a  spiritual  being  into  your  arms  and  home.  It  is  a 
momentous  charge,  potent  for  good  or  evil,  but  I  will  help  you. 
Do  not  fear.  Therefore,  mother,  step  softly.  Joy  shall  be  the 
accepted  creed  of  this  young  immortal  in  all  the  coming  years. 
This  child  shall  herald  your  example  and  counsels  when  you  are 
resting  from  your  labors. 

After  a  fond  good-by  to  Aunt  Sarah  and  her  kindred  beloved, 
Miss  Willard,  repeating  the  first  journey  of  her  life,  went  westward 
to  Oberlin,  where  Mary  was  born.  Here  again  in  the  old  home 
she  received  greetings  from  friends  and  relatives,  held  glad  con- 
verse with  her  first  Forest  Home  teacher,  addressed  a  W.  C.  T.  U. 
gathering  in  the  afternoon  and  a  public  meeting  later  where  the 
children  of  the  Loyal  Temperance  Legion  flocked  in;  attended 
prayers  in  the  college  chapel  with  memories  of  President  Finney 
and  the  illustrious  Christian  manhood  and  womanhood  his  influ- 
ence had  helped  to  form. 

She  tarried  but  a  day  amid  these  dear  scenes,  and  reaching 
Chicago  was  the  warmly  welcomed  guest  —  nay  —  beloved  member 
of  the  family,  in  the  artistic  home  of  her  cousin  Hattie.  There 
she  received  all  that  a  tender,  unselfish  and  sisterly  heart  could 
devise  to  upbuild  her  physically  and  to  shelter  her  from  the  various 
engagements  and  demands  that  came  whenever  she  returned  to 
her  home  city.  Frequent  visits  to  Evanston  were  more  significant 
than  any  home-goings.  The  hours  in  the  "rifted  nest,"  as  she 
now  styled  Rest  Cottage,  had  pathetic  moments,  while  even  the 
thoughtful  kindness  of  friends  old  and  new  who  entertained  her 
and  the  genial  circle  of  Evanston  neighbors  could  not  break  the 
sense  of  homelessness  more  poignant  here  than  an y  where  else  in 
the  world.  She  had  loved  this  roof-tree  as  only  those  can  who  turn 
to  it  from  other  quarters,  who  rest  in  it  after  many  wanderings. 

It  is  pleasant  to  think  of  the  cheery  social  events  in  which 


OLD  HAUNTS  AND  HOMES  REVISITED  281 

Miss  Willard  was  able  to  take  part  in  Chicago  and  Evanston, 
though  never  did  she  work  more  untiringly  for  White  Ribbon  inter- 
ests. It  was  particularly  gratifying  to  her  to  address  the  students 
of  the  Northwestern  and  the  Chicago  Universities,  the  quaintness 
and  sweetness  of  her  words  and  her  lovely  presence  drawing  to  her 
the  hearts  of  her  younger  brothers  and  sisters,  and  her  evident 
physical  frailness  arousing  their  chivalric  sympathy. 

In  the  circle  of  home  with  her  kindred  on  Thanksgiving  Day 
and  at  Christmas  time,  she  was  full  of  merry  playfulness,  or  with 
an  instant  change  of  thought  would  say  grace  at  table,  bringing  the 
divine  realities  so  near  as  to  move  all  to  tears.  Her  jubilant  alto 
voice  joined  in  all  the  songs  with  only  a  tremolo  in  "  Home,  Sweet 
Home,"  which  was  sung  around  the  children's  Christmas  tree. 
How  varied  and  sparkling  was  her  table  talk  while  the  precious 
body  took  less  of  nourishment  than  the  mind  gave  out  to  others! 
The  story  of  those  hours  when  the  vase-like  purity  of  her  being 
was  so  sheer  a  screen  for  the  flame  of  her  soul  cannot  be  told. 
Reminiscence  and  suggestion  will  not  give  again  the  countless  inti- 
mations of  ethereal  beauty  which  she  shed  about  her. 

New  Year's  Day  was  to  see  again  at  Janesville,  Wisconsin,  the 
woman  of  ripe  years,  of  grand  achievement  and  of  gentle  perfected 
womanhood,  as  it  had  seen  her  go  out  a  mere  maiden  long  ago. 
Here  her  last  public  address  was  given  in  the  Congregational 
church,  with  the  friends  of  her  childhood  days  meeting  the  glance 
of  her  tender  eyes  as  she  spoke  words  of  life  and  love  concerning 
the  sanctity  of  the  home,  and  said  with  hand  lifted  in  blessing  as 
she  left  the  pulpit,  ' '  Good-by,  dear  friends  of  my  loved  childhood's 
home,  good-by  —  perhaps  forever  —  and  if  forever,  may  we  meet 
in  our  home  in  heaven."  With  her  cousins  she  revisited  Forest 
Home,  stood  on  the  old  veranda,  talked  with  the  bright-faced 
teacher  and  children  in  the  schoolhouse  near  by.  This  home 
more  than  any  other  had  been  inwrought  into  her  life  and  must 
have  given  her  the  conviction  that  ' '  homes  are  as  immortal  as 
folks,  and  in  their  essence  will  be  of  us  in  the  real  and  better  and 
oncoming  life." 


CHAPTER   XIV 

NEARING   THE    HEAVENLY    HOME 

"And  so  to  the  land's 
Last  limit  I  came  — 
And  can  no  longer, 
But  die  rejoicing, 
For  through  the  Magic 
Of  Him  the  Mighty, 
Who  taught  me  in  childhood, 
There  on  the  border 
Of  boundless  Ocean, 
And  all  but  in  Heaven 
Hovers  the  Gleam." 

is  such  a  little  way  to  go, "  Miss  Willard  had  said 
to  her  comrades  in  the  memorial  service  at  our  Toronto 
Convention  in  October. 
Tenderly  she  had  plead  with  us  always  to  talk  about  others  as 
we  would  were  the  sacred  seal  of  death  already  on  their  foreheads. 
Oh,  beloved  friend!  The  light  of  heaven  was  always  in  her  true, 
far-seeing,  kindly  eyes  - —  she  long  ago  caught  the  sweet  spirit  of 
saints  redeemed;  her  charity  was  never  aught  but  God-like! 
What  wonder  that  we  failed  to  think  her  words  prophetic!  As  we 
traveled  swiftly  toward  the  cosmopolitan  city  that  links  our  great 
republic  with  every  other  land,  how  could  we  dream  that  after  all 
these  happy  and  eventful  years  of  travel  by  land  and  by  sea  we 
were  taking  our  last  journey  together? 

Many  letters  were  written  on  the  way;  there  was  rich  con- 
verse of  nature,  of  science,  of  God,  sometimes  suggested  by  her 
own  deep  thoughts  when  persuaded  to  rest  awhile,  or  called  out 

28* 


NEARING   THE  HEAVENLY  HOME  283 

by  paragraphs  in  the  daily  papers,  and  many  were  the  plans 
proposed  for  the  weeks  to  be  invested  in  work  before  crossing  the 
ocean  to  spend  the  summer  months  with  Lady  Henry  Somerset, 
and  look  again  into  the  faces  of  dear  comrades  in  the  annual 
council  of  the  British  Women's  Temperance  Association. 

Just  before  leaving  Chicago  Miss  Willard  had  received  a  tele- 
gram which  brought  tears  to  her  eyes  and  a  quiver  to  her  lips  as 
she  said,  "This  is  something  quite  unusual;  such  kindness  from  a 
stranger  touches  me  deeply.  The  telegram  read: 

1 '  To  have  as  a  guest  at  the  Hotel  Empire  the  author  of  so  much  good 
will  more  than  recompense  us;  there  will  be  no  charge  for  your  apartments. 

"W.  JOHNSON  QUINN." 

Dear  friends  had  called  at  the  Hotel  Empire  with  the  thought 
it  would  be  a  pleasant  home  for  us  while  in  New  York,  but  the 
prices  were  found  to  be  far  beyond  our  possibilities.  The  hotel 
was  delightfully  located  near  Central  Park  and  Riverside  Drive, 
not  thickly  surrounded  by  business  blocks  or  homes,  and  therefore 
in  the  best  atmosphere.  After  an  interchange  of  letters  it  was 
decided  that  even  the  generous  terms  offered  by  the  proprietor 
were  more  than  a  reformer's  income  could  meet  and  we  had 
planned  to  take  rooms  in  a  quiet  boarding  house  down  town,  when 
this  message  made  us  the  grateful  guests  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Quinn, 
in  a  sunny  suite  of  apartments  on  the  first  floor  of  this  homelike 
hotel. 

During  the  first  two  weeks  of  our  stay  we  drove  for  an  hour 
every  pleasant  day  in  the  Park,  or  up  the  beautiful  Riverside  Drive 
as  far  as  the  tomb  of  Gen.  Grant,  and  late  in  that  first  week  we 
spent  an  afternoon  in  the  charming  home  of  Miss  Willard's  niece, 
Mrs.  Katharine  Willard  Baldwin,  seeing  for  the  first  time  the  little 
grandnephew,  Summerfield.  When  Mr.  Quinn  called  upon  us, 
Miss  Willard  was  deeply  impressed  with  his  brotherly  good  will 
and  his  sincere  wish  that  we  should  remain  at  the  hotel  just  as 
long  as  we  desired.  ' '  Why, "  said  Miss  Willard,  ' '  I  thought  we 
ought  not  to  stay  beyond  a  week, "  only  to  receive  the  reply,  ' '  You 
could  not  do  me  a  greater  kindness  than  to  stay  a  year  if  you  cared 


284  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

to,  and  any  time  in  the  future  if  you  are  in  the  city  I  want  you  to 
feel  that  you,  and  whoever  is  with  you,  will  be  welcome  to  the  best 
rooms  at  my  disposal." 

About  two  weeks  after  our  arrival  Miss  Willard  complained 
of  great  weariness  and  unnatural  languor,  but  kept  bravely  at 
work  notwithstanding  our  pleading  that  she  should  allow  her- 
self a  few  days  of  absolute  physical  repose.  Then  gradually  the 
hours  of  work  were  shortened,  while  the  nights  grew  strangely 
long,  and  many  of  their  wakeful  hours  were  solaced  by  a  repe- 
tition of  the  poems  and  psalms  she  loved,  and  which  I  had 
long  ago  memorized.  Soon  she  was  really  ill,  and  when,  at  her 
own  suggestion,  the  tired  head  was  pillowed  during  the  day,  our 
hopeful  hearts  said  a  few  weeks  of  rest  and  our  loved  one  will  be 
herself  again.  Dr.  Alfred  K.  Hills,  who  had  been  Miss  Willard's 
physician  during  the  summer  months,  and  under  whose  treatment 
she  had  been  well-nigh  restored  to  her  old-time  vigor,  assured  us 
that  although  she  was  suffering  from  a  marked  case  of  influenza, 
there  were  no  symptoms  that  need  give  us  alarm.  Desiring  that 
our  precious  charge  should  have  skillful  as  well  as  loving  care,  the 
assistance  of  a  trained  nurse  was  at  once  secured,  whose  tender 
devotion  to  Miss  Willard  could  not  have  been  exceeded. 

From  the  first  of  her  illness  Miss  Willard  felt  she  might  not 
recover,  but  as  a  similar  impression  had  often  characterized  her 
when  ill,  it  gave  us  less  apprehension.  Her  physician  assured  her 
she  would  soon  be  sitting  up,  and  we  endeavored  throughout  those 
long  days  of  enforced  quietness  to  make  her  believe  her  earthly 
work  was  not  done.  It  was  physical  quietness  only,  for  brain  and 
heart  were  never  more  busy.  Reading  aloud  from  her  favorite 
books  I  would  often  be  interrupted  by  the  question,  asked  with 
irresistible  charm,  ' '  Could  I  dictate  to  little  Mamie  (our  faithful 
stenographer,  Mary  Powderly),  just  one  very  important  letter  ?  " 
or,  "I  think,  dear,  you  will  have  to  get  a  paper  and  pencil  and  let 
me  put  something  down  that  must  be  done,  and  don't  you  forget 
it!"  Oh,  those  hours  of  retrospect  and  of  hopeful  outlook,  whose 
deep,  rich  thoughts  might  all  have  been  known  but  for  our  constant 


NEARING    THE  HE  A  VENL  Y  HOME  285 

endeavor  to  conserve  the  precious  strength  all  too  slender  lor  the 
strain  it  had  to  bear. 

Her  last  "memorandum"  was  given  me  one  week  before 
her  home-going.  ' '  Don't  fail  to  put  it  down, "  she  began, 
"that  I  have  always  recognized  the  splendid  work  done  in 
1874  by  the  women  of  Washington  Court  House,  and  that 
while  I  regard  Hillsboro  as  the  cradle,  Washington  Court 
House  is  the  crown  of  the  Crusade, "  and  she  added,  •' '  Fre- 
donia  must  always  be  remembered  as  the  home  of  the  first  local 
W.  C.  T.  U.  If  I  don't  get  well  you  must  send  some  souvenir 
and  a  message  of  special  remembrance  to  Mother  Thompson,  to 
Mother  Stewart,  and  to  Mrs.  Zerelda  Wallace  "  (pioneers  in  the 
W.  C.  T.  U.  movement).  Mrs.  Dio  Lewis  had  called  the  day 
before,  and  as  I  told  Miss  Willard  of  her  visit  she  talked  much  of 
the  early  days  of  her  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Dio  Lewis,  of  his 
part  in  the  Crusade  movement,  and  said  she  hoped  that  at  the 
twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  Crusade  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U. 
Convention  would  take  some  action  in  regard  to  having  a  day  for 
the  special  and  grateful  remembrance  of  the  work  of  this  early 
reformer.  She  talked  of  the  Polyglot  Petition,  and  her  great  wish 
that  more  signatures  should  be  secured,  and  spoke  of  the  hope  she 
had  cherished  that  she  might  help  in  its  presentation  to  the  Domin- 
ion of  Canada,  and  thus  aid  the  plebiscite  campaign;  but,  she 
added,  ' '  I  feel  I  shall  never  do  it,  and  I  want  you  to  ask  my  friend, 
Colonel  Bain,  to  make  that  speech  for  me. " 

Miss  Willard  had  looked  forward  to  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
British  Women's  Temperance  Association,  to  be  held  a  few  months 
later,  and  her  affection  for  her  English  sisters  was  apparent  in  the 
earnestness  with  which  she  bade  us  carry  out  certain  plans  to  which 
she  frequently  alluded,  and  which  are  now  a  sacred  obligation. 

Frequently  Miss  Willard  asked  if  I  had  remembered  her 
request  to  send  to  The  Union  Signal,  The  Voice,  the  various  offi- 
cials of  our  society,  and  to  the  friends  in  Canada  and  in  England, 
letters  urging  co-operation  in  the  observance  of  Gen.  Neal  Dow's 
birthday,  March  20,  as  Prohibition  Day. 


286  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

On  the  last  Sunday  afternoon  (February  13),  she  talked 
much  of  the  Temple,  telling  her  physician  of  the  heroic  efforts 
of  its  founder,  her  loved  and  generous-hearted  friend,  Mrs.  Carse. 
Speaking  with  emphasis  and  frankness  of  the  forces  that  had 
helped  and  the  forces  that  had  hindered  the  enterprise  so  dear  to 
her  heart,  she  exclaimed  :  "Oh,  if  I  only  could  be  of  help!  Oh, 
that  some  one  would  help  me  in  my  extremity,  so  that  success 
might  come  to  the  Temple.  Everything  about  it  has  not  been 
wise,  but  was  there  ever  a  great  enterprise  without  faults?  Yes, 
they  should  go  on  and  help  the  women,  and  get  everything  into 
shape.  It  was  a  pity,  perhaps,  to  make  it  so  big.  I  would  rather 
they  had  not;  but  it's  grand  to  work  for  a  great  cause,  and  you 
musn't  let  it  fail. "  She  was  interrupted  by  the  doctor,  who  said : 
' '  If  you  will  only  get  well,  Miss  Willard,  we  will  create  a  great 
enthusiasm  and  get  that  Temple  paid  for;  but  to  get  well  is  the 
first  consideration. "  ' '  No,  no, "  was  the  pathetic  reply,  * '  I  believe 
you  could  do  better  if  I  didn't  get  well.  Oh,"  she  continued, 
"there  have  never  been  such  women  as  our  White-Ribboners; 
so  large-minded,  so  generous,  such  patriots,  such  Christians.  We 
have  had  a  great,  beautiful  past,  and  the  people  don't  know  it; 
they  think  we  are  fanatics.  It  has  been  a  great  fight,  and  they'll 
never  know  what  we  have  been  through.  Oh,  how  I  want  our 
women  to  have  a  new  concept  of  religion;  the  religion  of  the  world 
is  a  religion  of  love ;  it  is  a  home  religion ;  it  is  a  religion  of  peace ; 
and  tell  them  —  tell  them  not  to  forget  it  is  a  religion  of  patriotism. 
We  have  set  up  to  be  patriots,  we  White-Ribboners,  and  we  have 
fought  amidst  much  ostracism.  Tell  our  White-Ribboners  to  study 
the  New  Testament;  I  love  the  New  Testament.  No  human  being 
has  ever  conceived  as  he  should  what  the  New  Testament  means 
by  loyalty  to  Christ." 

Later,  when  alone  with  this  precious  friend,  she  pointed  to 
a  picture  of  the  Christ,  a  life-size  drawing  from  Hoffman's  paint- 
ing, in  which  Christ  and  the  sinful  woman  are  the  central 
figures.  This  was  a  Christmas  gift  from  Lady  Henry  Somerset, 
and  as  Miss  Willard  looked  lovingly  toward  it  she  said:  "  He  can 


NEARING    THE  HE  A  VENL  Y  HOME  287 

do  everything  for  us."  Then  she  talked  about  her  beloved 
friend  in  terms  of  the  most  tender  endearment,  saying,  "You 
must  carry  that  picture  to  Lady  Henry  as  my  parting  gift. "  ' '  Oh, 
no,"  I  replied,  "you  are  going  to  get  well,  and  you  know  we 
shall  sail  just  as  soon  as  you  are  strong  enough,  and  you  must 
take  it  to  her  yourself. "  ' '  No,  no,  when  I  take  that  picture  to 
England  cosmos  will  have  become  chaos.  You  must  take  it  to  her, 
and  you  must  have,  in  pretty  letters  that  she  would  like,  up  at 
the  top,  the  words,  Only  the  Golden  Rule  of  Christ  can  bring 
the  Golden  Age  of  Man,  and  underneath  you  must  put  what 
Christ  said  to  the  woman,  '  Neither  do  I  condemn  thee ;  go,  and 
sin  no  more ' ;  then  don't  forget  to  put  the  word  Hoffman  down  in 
the  right-hand  corner,  so  that  everybody  will  know  he  painted  this 
beautiful  picture." 

She  asked  lovingly  about  her  comrades  at  the  Temple,  and 
her  associates  in  White  Ribbon  work.  ' '  Do  they  know  how  ill  I 
am  ?"  ' '  Yes, "  I  said,  one  of  the  very  last  sad  days,  ' '  they  do  know, 
and  they  are  all  so  sorry, "  and,  mentioning  each  name  at  Head- 
quarters, and  many  others,  I  added,  ' '  They  are  sending  you  such 
beautiful  letters  and  telegrams  every  day,  all  of  them. "  ' '  How 
good,"  said  the  faint,  tender  voice;  "give  each  of  them  my  love; 
but,  oh,  they'll  be  sadder  before  they  are  gladder." 

On  the  1 4th,  Miss  Willard  remembered  that  it  was  Saint 
Valentine's  day,  and  that  on  the  previous  day  my  dear  mother  had 
celebrated  her  birthday,  and,  thinking  of  one  whom  she  had 
lovingly  called  "mother"  since  her  own  Saint  Courageous  went 
away,  she  said,  ' '  Give  my  dearest  love  to  Mother  Gordon  and  to 
your  sisters." 

In  the  evening  a  friend  sent  an  illuminated  card  bearing  the 
text,  ' '  Unto  you  which  believe  He  is  precious. "  In  the  shaded 
light  of  the  room  I  thought  Miss  Willard  could  not  distinguish  the 
words,  but  as  I  held  the  card  near  her  she  slowly  read  them,  and 
said,  ' '  Thank  dear  Fannie,  and  tell  her  it  is  the  loveliest  valentine 
I  ever  had  in  all  my  life. " 

The  next  day  Miss  Willard  became  extremely  restless,  and 


288  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

piteously  begged  us  to  take  her  to  the  home  of  her  friend,  Mary 
Lathbury,  in  the  suburbs  of  the  city.  ' '  I  could  rest  there, "  she 
moaned,  ' '  and  perhaps  I  should  get  well. "  She  spoke  of  Rev. 
John  M.  Scott,  author  of  a  devotional  book,  ' '  Kindly  Light  in 
Prayer  and  Praise, "  which  she  had  greatly  enjoyed  reading,  and 
wished  he  might  come  to  see  her.  So  earnest  was  this  desire  that 
we  at  once  sent  word  to  him,  but  by  the  time  he  reached  the  hotel 
Miss  Willard's  condition  was  so  critical  that  her  physician  felt  the 
interview  should  be  postponed. 

That  morning  Mrs.  Baldwin  came,  bringing  lilies  of  the  valley 
to  her  aunt,  and  saying,  as  she  placed  them  in  her  hand,  ' '  Here 
are  some  of  grandma's  flowers  for  you,  dear  Aunt  Frank. "  Beds 
of  these  fragrant  lilies  used  to  nestle  close  to  Rest  Cottage  and 
were  Mrs.  Willard's  pride  and  delight.  When  Katherine's  sister 
Mary  was  a  wee  tot  she  was  asked  by  her  grandmother  one  Sunday 
morning  what  the  minister  had  preached  about.  It  was  early 
spring,  the  beautiful  lilies  were  in  full  bloom,  and  the  sweet  child 
responded,  ' '  Why,  grandma,  he  talked  about  the  lily  of  the  valley 
of  the  shadow. ",  As  our  best  beloved  held  the  flowers,  her  face 
brightened,  and  she  murmured,  ' '  Lilies  —  of  the  valley  —  of  the 
shadow."  Then,  though  we  little  dreamed  it,  came  the  last  talk 
with  one  of  her  own  kindred,  which  included  loving  messages  to 
her  sister,  Mrs.  Mary  B.  Willard,  in  Berlin,  and  to  each  of  the 
nephews,  and  to  her  niece,  Mary  Bannister  Willard.  This  conver- 
sation reminded  Miss  Willard  of  Evanston  days,  and  later  I  was 
given  commissions  regarding  her  neighbors  and  friends  in  the  old 
home,  and  a  special  message  to  her  dear  and  long-time  friend, 
Miss  Katherine  A.  Jackson.  Miss  Willard  lived  over  the  Janes- 
ville  days  at  ' '  Forest  Home, "  and  talked  of  Rock  River  and  her 
happy  childhood,  alluding  also  in  loving  terms  to  relatives  in  her 
birthplace,  Churchville,  New  York,  while  the  poor,  weary  head 
tossed  incessantly  from  side  to  side.  Night  came,  and  we  vainly 
tried  to  quiet  her  to  sleep,  and  as  I  knelt  beside  her  she 
said,  ' '  sing  '  Hush,  My  Babe, '  perhaps  that  would  put  me  to 
sleep. "  I  sang  it  over  and  over  until  I  heard  her  say,  ' '  How 


KATHARINE  WILLARD  BALDWIN 


LILLIAN  M.  N.  STEVENS 
MISS  WILLARD'S  SUCCESSOR  AS  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  NATIONAL  W.  C.  T.  U. 


NEARING   THE  HEAVENLY  HOME  289 

strange  it  is ;  I  should  think  that  would  make  me  sleep,  you  sing  it 
so  sweetly.  Suppose  you  try,  '  Gently,  Lord. '  "  In  Rest  Cottage 
days  that  was  a  favorite  hymn  at  family  prayers,  and  one  morning, 
long  ago,  she  had  changed  the  second  line,  which  reads  ' '  Through 
this  gloomy  vale  of  tears, "  to  one  more  consonant  with  her  concept 
of  life,  ' '  Through  this  vale  of  smiles  and  tears, "  and  thus  I  sang 
it  to  her  now.  On  reaching  the  last  two  lines  I  could  not  recall  the 
words.  She  quickly  prompted  me  by  saying,  ' '  'Till,  by  angel 
bands,"  and  thinking  only  of  her  I  finished  the  hymn: 
'"Till,  by  angel  bands  attended, 
I  awake  among  the  blest." 

' '  Oh,  no,  not  I ;  it's  we,  it's  always  we ;  Christianity  is  we,  not  I ; 
you  know  it's  our  Father;  don't  forget  that.  Now  sing  it  again, 
please,  and  sing  it  we. " 

Morning  dawned,  but  no  rest  beyond  a  few  moments'  uncon- 
sciousness had  come  ;  •  soothe  or  to  restore.  The  awful  pain  in 
our  hearts  grew  more  intense;  how  often  we  had  heard  her  say 
when  some  great  purpose  illumined  her  soul,  ' '  Here  in  the  body 
pent. "  ' '  Mother,  Sissy's  dress  aches, "  she  had  moaned  as  a  child, 
on  the  long  overland  journey  by  carriage  from  Churchville  to  Ober- 
lin,  during  every  mile  of  which  her  mother  held  the  little  one.  Was 
Saint  Courageous  near  her  now  to  hear  the  same  pitiful  plaint 
applied  to  the  dress  of  mortality  in  which  she  had  journeyed  so 
fast  and  far  during  these  fifty-eight  years  of  unparalleled  activity? 
Could  it  be  that  this  great  soul  was  soon  to  be  set  free  to  enter 
upon  the  unwearied  work  of  the  life  immortal?  No,  no,  we  said 
in  our  human  selfishness  and  overwhelming  agony,  God  cannot, 
will  not  take  her  now.  We  thought  of  that  dearest  of  friends 
across  the  sea  whose  daily  messages  were  a  benediction  to  our 
patient  sufferer,  who  watched  for  them  with  loving  eagerness,  and 
our  aching  hearts  refused  to  believe  that  these  two  friends  were  not 
to  meet  again  on  earth. 

Our  physicians  did  not  conceal  from  us  the  anxiety  they  now 
felt,  but  assured  us  there  still  was  hope.  Devoted  comrades  every- 
where were  pleading  with  strong  crying  and  tears  for  the  life  of 

19 


290  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

their  brave  and  beloved  leader.  A  general  call  to  prayer  was  sent 
out  from  Headquarters  in  Chicago,  and  at  the  noon  hour  Willard 
Hall  was  filled  with  a  vast  audience,  the  cry  of  every  heart  being, 
' '  Spare  her,  O  God,  if  it  is  Thy  will. " 

Mrs.  Stevens,  of  Maine,  had  come  to  us  several  days  before  in 
response  to  my  earnest  request,  and  early  this  morning  she  sat  for 
a  few  moments  by  the  side  of  her  beloved  friend  and  comrade  in 
the  battles  of  the  Lord.  As  Miss  Willard  felt  the  hand  laid  ten- 
derly upon  her  own  she  looked  earnestly  into  "  Stevie's  "  face,  say- 
ing, ' '  I  felt  sure  that  you  would  come  " ;  then,  with  characteristic 
thoughtfulness,  she  inquired  for  each  member  of  Mrs.  Stevens' 
family,  for  Miss  Cornelia  Dow  and  for  her  warm  friend,  Miss  Agnes 
Slack,  in  England. 

There  were  friends  endeared  to  Miss  Willard  by  years  of  asso- 
ciation and  tender  love  who  longed  to  minister  to  her  during  these 
anxious  days,  but  her  physician  felt  that  wit  i  brain  so  active  and 
a  body  so  weak  there  must  be  the  utmost  quiet.  By  telegram  and 
letter  came  anxious  inquiries,  and  that  room  from  which  she  was 
soon  to  pass  to  heaven,  became  the  center  of  thought  and  prayer- 
ful solicitude  for  thousands.  Many  relatives  and  friends  were  daily 
informed  of  our  hopes  and  fears  through  the  unwearied  kindness  of 
my  sister  and  others  whose  helpfulness  will  never  be  forgotten. 
Flowers  constantly  cheered  our  uncomplaining  invalid  —  one  day 
delicate  orchids  gathered  in  a  private  conservatory  and  sent  with 
heartfelt  love;  another,  bright  jonquil  blossoms  brought  by  the 
waiter  who  had  served  Miss  Willard's  meals  from  the  dining  room. 
Daily  telegrams  from  the  proprietor  and  his  wife  (who  were  in 
Atlantic  City  on  account  of  Mrs.  Quinn's  ill  health),  expressed  their 
deep  sympathy  and  placed  at  our  command  every  resource  the 
hotel  afforded. 

Of  one  faithful  heart  I  must  specially  speak  ;  ' '  dear  little 
Mamie,"  who  with  unexampled " self-sacrifice  sat  at  her  typewriter 
from  morning  until  night,  sending  to  aching  hearts  news  of  their 
beloved  one,  when  she  might  have  been  in  the  sick  room  minis- 
tering to  her  whom  she  so  deeply  loved  and  for  three  years  had 


NEARING   THE  HEAVENLY  HOME  291 

devotedly  served.  Whenever  she  came  quietly  into  the  room  on 
an  errand,  Miss  Willard  would  recognize  her  and  would  say, 
"Why,  there's  dear  little  Mamie!"  and  have  for  her,  as  always, 
some  pleasant  word. 

Evening  came,  but  the  terrible  unrest  continued,  smiting  our 
hearts  —  lest  her  prophetic  words  were  all  too  true — lest  this  beat- 
ing of  her  tired  wings  against  their  earthly  prison-house  would  be 
followed  by  her  flight  far  beyond  our  loving  care. 

Suddenly  she  gazed  intently  on  the  picture  directly  opposite 
her  bed.  Her  eyes  seemed  to  meet  those  of  the  compassionate 
Christ,  and  with  the  old  eloquence  in  her  voice,  in  the  stillness  of 
that  never-to-be-forgotten  night,  she  said: 

"'I  am  Merlin,  and  I  am  dying, 
But  I'll  follow  the  Gleam.' 

I'm  getting  so  tired,  how  can  I  follow  it  much  longer?  .  .  . 
He  giveth  His  beloved  sleep,  but  oh,  sometimes  He  is  a  long  time 
doing  it.  ...  The  next  time  you  read  *  De  Profundis '  you 
will  think  of  this  day,  the  longest  and  hardest  of  my  whole  life. 
.  .  .  Oh,  let  me  go  away,  let  me  be  in  peace;  I  am  so  safe 
with  Him.  He  has  other  worlds  and  I  want  to  go.  I  have  always 
believed  in  Christ;  He  is  the  incarnation  of  God."  Speaking  of 
Lady  Henry,  as  she  did  so  often  that  night  and  always,  she  said: 
' '  She  did  everything  for  me,  and  was  so  good. " 

Toward  morning  she  whispered,  ' '  I  want  to  speak  to  you  quite 
alone, "  and  bending  near  her  to  catch  every  faintly  uttered  word, 
I  received  this  sacred  message :  ' '  I  want  to  say  what  Mary  and  I 
used  to  say  to  each  other  away  back  in  the  old  days  on  the  farm 
when  we  were  going  to  sleep.  I  would  say  to  Mary,  '  I  ask  your 
pardon  and  I  thank  you, '  and  she  would  say,  '  I  freely  forgive  you 
and  welcome,'  and  then  we  would  change  about  with  the  same 
sweet  words  of  forgiveness  and  gratitude.  I  want  to  say  that  to 
you,  and  to  every  White-Ribboner,  and  to  everybody." 


CHAPTER   XV 

TRANSLATION 

ARLY  on  February  17,  the  last  day  God  let  us  have  ner 
,.  with  us,  she  remembered  it  was  time  for  her  "letter  from 
home,"  as  she  loved  to  call  our  official  paper  The  Union 
Signal,  and  sweetly  said,  ' '  Please  let  me  sit  up  and  let  me  have 
our  beautiful  Signal"  She  was  soon  laid  back  upon  her  pillows, 
when,  taking  Dr.  Hills'  hand  in  hers,  she  spoke  tender,  appreciative 
words  about  her  friend  and  physician,  of  which  the  last  were  these, 
' '  I  say,  God  bless  him ;  I  shall  remember  his  loving  kindness 
through  all  eternity." 

A  little  later  Mrs.  Hoffman,  National  Recording  Secretary  of 
our  society,  entered  the  room  for  a  moment.  Miss  Willard  seemed 
to  be  unconscious,  but  as  Mrs.  Hoffman  quietly  took  her  hand  she 
looked  up  and  said,  "Why,  that's  Clara;  good  Clara;  Clara,  I've 
crept  in  with  mother,  and  it's  the  same  beautiful  world  and  the 
same  people,  remember  that  —  it's  just  the  same." 

"Has  my  cable  come?  "  she  soon  asked;  "  Oh,  how  I  want  it 
to  come ; "  and  when,  a  few  moments  later,  a  message  of  tenderest 
solicitude  and  love  was  received  from  dear  Lady  Henry,  I  placed  it 
in  her  hand.  "Read  it,  oh  read  it  quickly  —  what  does  it  say?  " 
were  her  eager  questions,  and  as  I  read  the  precious  words  I  heard 
her  voice,  "  Oh,  how  sweet,  oh,  how  lovely,  good  —  good!  " 

Quietly  as  a  babe  in  its  mother's  arms  she  now  fell  asleep,  and 
though  we  knew  it  not  ' '  the  dew  of  eternity  was  soon  to  fall  upon 
her  forehead. "  ' '  She  had  come  to  the  borderland  of  this  closely 
curtained  world!" 

Only  once  again  did  she  speak  to  us,  when  about  noon  the 
little  thin,  white  hand  —  that  active,  eloquent  hand  —  was  raised  in 

292 


TRANSLA  TION  293 

an  effort  to  point  upward,  and  we  listened  for  the  last  time  on  earth 
to  the  voice  that  to  thousands  has  surpassed  all  others  in  its  mar- 
velous sweetness  and  magnetic  power.  It  was  like  the  lovely  and 
pathetic  strain  from  an  ^olian  harp  on  which  heavenly  zephyrs 
were  breathing,  and  she  must  even  then  have  caught  some  glimpse 
of  those  other  worlds  for  which  she  longed  as  she  said,  in  tones  of 
utmost  content,  ' '  How  beautiful  it  is  to  be  with  God. " 

As  twilight  fell,  hope  died  in  our  yearning  hearts,  for  we  saw 
that  the  full  glory  of  another  life  was  soon  to  break  o'er  our  loved 
one's  ' '  earthly  horizon. "  Kneeling  about  her  bed,  with  the  faithful 
nurses  who  had  come  to  love  their  patient  as  a  sister,  we  silently 
watched  while  the  life  immortal,  the  life  more  abundant,  came  in 
its  fullness  to  this  inclusive  soul,  whose  wish,  cherished  from  her 
youth,  that  she  might  go,  not  like  a  peasant  to  a  palace,  but  as  a 
child  to  her  Father's  home,  was  about  to  be  fulfilled.  A  few  friends 
who  had  come  to  the  hotel  to  make  inquiries,  joined  the  silent  and 
grief-stricken  group.  Slowly  the  hours  passed  with  no  recognition 
of  the  loved  ones  about  her.  There  came  an  intent  upward  gaze 
of  the  heavenly  blue  eyes,  a  few  tired  sighs,  and  at  the  "noon 
hour  "  of  the  night  Frances  Willard  was 

' '  Born  into  beauty 

And  born  into  bloom, 
Victor  immortal 

O'er  death  and  the  tomb." 

The  babe  Frances  could  not  sleep  without  the  palm  of  her  tiny 
hand  laid  upon  her  mother's  cheek ;  the  girl  Frances  lying  upon  the 
grass  in  the  soft  gathering  stillness  of  summer  twilight  would  reach 
up  her  hand  beseechingly  for  God  to  touch;  the  woman  Frances, 
when  all  her  loved  ones  had  been  transplanted  to  the  gardens  of 
the  higher  life,  had  followed  that  way  with  sublime  and  childlike 
trust,  greeting  her  glad  proof  of  immortality  with  the  grandly  sim- 
ple words,  ' '  How  beautiful  it  is  to  be  with  God. " 

The  stillness  was  broken  only  by  sobs  as  we  closed  the 
earthly  eyes  of  one  who  was  always  a  seer,  and  who  now  beheld 


294  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

the  King  in  His  beauty  and  the  land  that  she  so  often  said  is  not 
far  off. 

My  sister  breathed  out  the  prayer  of  all  our  hearts,  ' '  Dear 
Father,  we  give  Thee  back  Thine  own,"  while  my  desolate  soul 
responded,  ' '  And  we  thank  Thee  for  taking  her  so  gently. " 

With  sublime  trust  the  broken-hearted  women  clasped  hands 
and  amid  their  tears  tried  to  sing  in  unison  with  the  great  White 
Ribbon  family  in  heaven  and  earth, 

' '  Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds 

Our  hearts  in  Christian  love 
The  fellowship  of  kindred  minds 
Is  like  to  that  above." 

An  hour  later  a  smile  of  joy  irradiated  the  sleeping  face. 
She  lay  at  the  close  of  her  life's  long  day  of  loving  toil  —  serene, 
majestic,  supremely  beautiful.  She  had  sown  many  harvests  of 
happiness  for  children  and  youth.  She  had  built  a  booth  in  the 
desert  for  pilgrims  weary  and  wounded.  She  had  lifted  the  cup 
of  cold  water  to  many  smitten  with  life's  fierce  heat,  had  seen 
the  signal  swung  out  from  the  heavenly  battlements  and  had 
made  ready  for  her  departure.  There  came  to  our  thought  what 
Bunyan  said  of  the  end  of  the  long  battle  which  Christian  fought: 
"Then  said  Christian,  'I  am  going  to  my  Father's;  and  though 
with  great  difficulty  I  am  got  hither,  yet  now  I  do  not  repent  of 
all  the  trouble  I  have  been  at  to  arrive  where  I  am.  My  sword  I 
leave  to  him  that  shall  succeed  me  in  my  pilgrimage,  and  my 
courage  and  skill  to  him  that  can  get  it.  My  marks  and  scars  I 
carry  with  me,  to  be  a  witness  for  me  that  I  have  fought  His 
battles  who  will  now  be  my  rewarder.'  When  the  day  that  he 
must  go  hence  was  come,  many  accompanied  him  to  the  river- 
side, into  which  as  he  went  he  said,  '  Death,  where  is  thy  sting  ? ' 
and  as  he  went  down  deeper,  he  said,  '  Grave,  where  is  thy 
victory?  '  So  he  passed  over,  and  all  the  trumpets  sounded  for 
him  on  the  other  side. " 

Before  the  early  dawn  we  carried  the  precious  form  of  our 
beloved  one  to  the  home  of  her  niece.  * '  How  radiantly  beautiful 


TRANSLA  TION  295 

she  is, "said  all  who  saw  her;  "surely  it  is  majestic  sweetness  that 
enthrones  her  brow. "  Victory  as  well  as  the  peace  of  God  was  in 
her  looks,  and  so  natural  seemed  her  sleep  that  Katherine's  little 
son  sweetly  called  to  his  aunt  as  he  was  lifted  up  to  look  at  her, 
and  in  his  baby  innocence  tried  to  awaken  her  that  she  might  take 
his  pretty  rose.  The  young  mother's  heart  was  deeply  stirred,  and 
she  said,  ' '  Aunt  Frank  was  just  a  dear,  sweet  baby  herself,  besides 
being  the  greatest  woman  in  all  the  world." 

Thousands  of  hearts  who  read  the  sad  tidings  in  the  morning 
papers  felt  a  sense  of  irreparable  loss  and  personal  bereavement. 
Cables,  telegrams,  letters  and  flowers  came  hourly  to  the  sorrowful 
group  at  the  hotel  who,  because  of  the  great  love  they  bore  her, 
must  not  weep  —  but  work. 

"We  know  no  other  woman,"  said  Mary  Lowe  Dickinson, 
' '  whose  home-going  would  have  left  so  many  other  women  feeling 
as  if  the  sun  had  gone.  And  we  know  no  other  out  of  all  the  many 
noble  women  of  our  land  whose  going  would  so  swiftly  have  mar- 
shaled the  thronging  stars No  one  could  fail  to  feel, 

as  that  brave  life  drifted  serenely  out  beyond  the  sunset,  the  over- 
whelming loss  and  gloom  creeping  piteously  upon  the  great  hearts 
that  loved  her  and  the  great  work  that  she  loved.  The  bitter  loss, 
the  sore  hurt  to  both,  could  not  be  told  in  words.  Genuine  grief 
finds  refuge  in  silence;  real  heartbreak  sobs  itself  out  to  God. 

' '  But  light  broke  upon  this  shadow  when  from  East  and  West 
and  North  and  South  began  to  gather  the  brave  and  tender  souls 
that  through  many  years  had  shared  Miss  Willard's  battles  for 
humanity,  standing,  some  lower,  some  higher  in  the  ranks,  yet  all 
in  heart  side  by  side  with  their  leader.  As  one  by  one,  or  in 
groups,  their  white,  tear-marked  faces  shone  out  of  the  gloom  we 
saw  the  stars  arise;  we  knew  that  however  human  hearts  might 
ache  or  break,  Miss  Willard's  work  was  safe.  These  rallying  lead- 
ers, gathering  in  New  York  at  the  news  of  their  chief's  departure, 
were  representative  of  a  great  army,  that  would,  in  groups,  or  sep- 
arately and  alone,  gladly  have  brought  to  their  one  great  leader 
and  comrade  their  own  kind  tribute  of  loyal  and  sorrowing  love. " 


296  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Each  day  quiet  groups  filled  the  hotel  parlors,  where  tears  and 
sobs  of  strong  men  mingled  with  those  of  White  Ribbon  com- 
rades and  personal  friends,  as  they  sought  to  comfort  and  counsel 
one  another. 

The  room  from  which  went  home  the  blessed  spirit  of  ' '  Saint 
Frances,"  as  Bishop  Vincent  calls  her,  will  be  forever  hallowed. 
Friends  came  to  it  one  by  one  as  to  a  sanctuary.  The  only  picture 
that  adorned  the  walls  was  the  Christ  on  which  the  closing  eyes 
had  rested,  and  just  below  this  on  the  writing  desk  were  grouped 
photographs  of  the  dear  ones  ' '  loved  and  lost  awhile, "  and  a  min- 
iature of  Lady  Henry  Somerset.  Bright,  fragrant  flowers  gave  a 
message  of  joy  and  hope,  though  the  rain  had  not  ceased  to  fall 
and  the  storm  to  beat  against  the  windows  since  that  winged  soul 
had  taken  its  flight. 

Many  a  silent  prayer  was  offered  from  anointed  and  chastened 
spirits.  "It  is  well  with  her, "  they  said,  and  praise  ascended  to 
Him  who,  through  His  own  victory  over  death,  had  given  their 
beloved  an  abundant  entrance  into  the  blessed  Homeland. 


PART  II 


IN  MEMORIAM 


CHAPTER   I 

THE    COMMEMORATIVE    SERVICES 

IN  the  home  of  her  loved  niece,  in  the  heart  of  the  greatest  city 
on  the  continent,  in  the  State  in  which  her  eyes  had  greeted 
the  light  of  earth,  Frances  E.  Willard  lay  in  her  last  sleep. 
Early  Sunday  afternoon,  February  20,  relatives,  friends  and 
leading  White-Ribboners  gathered  like  a  family  group  about  the 
beloved  form.  With  sobs  and  tears  that  could  not  be  suppressed 
the  heartbroken  White-Ribboners  repeated  the  texts  she  loved, 
uttered  brief,  fervent  prayers,  and  solaced  their  hearts  with  blessed 
memories  and  triumphant  hope.  The  dear  one  drew  us  close  to 
her  as  she  always  did  in  life.  Surely  we  could  fear  no  evil  if  this 
was  death.  Each  heart  received  its  own  message,  and  to  all  she 
seemed  to  say,  ' '  Little  children,  love  one  another. "  Never  was 
she  so  great,  never  so  beautiful,  as  "sceptered  and  robed  and 
crowned  "  she  lay  against  the  soft  linings  of  her  silver-gray  casket, 
whose  only  ornament  was  the  broad  encircling  white  ribbon.  She 
was  robed  in  a  home  dress  of  softest  white;  her  fair  hair  was 
arranged  in  the  old  familiar  way ;  the  ' '  little  bow  of  white  "  was 
not  hidden  by  the  floral  heart  of  lilies  and  cape  jessamine  that 
rested,  by  Lady  Henry  Somerset's  request,  on  the  purest  heart 
that  ever  went  home  to  God,  while  in  the  dear  hand  which  had 
long  beckoned  us  onward  were  lilies  of  the  valley.  Every  care-line 
had  vanished  from  her  madonna-like  face,  and  there  was  over  it 
not  alone  the  hush  of  a  great  stillness,  but  the  awe  of  an  infinite 
wonder  —  the  radiance  of  an  eternal  joy.  The  flowers  of  earth 
were  all  about  her,  and  the  perfume  of  the  immortal  flowers  of  the 
life  beyond  seemed  to  fill  the  room  and  pervade  all  our  hearts.  A 

299 


300  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

tender  hymn  was  sung,  Mrs.  Stevens  led  in  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  bene- 
diction, which  was  followed  by  the  temperance  doxology,  and  we 
went  out  from  a  home,  made  sacred  forever,  to  the  Broadway 
Tabernacle  —  the  church  in  which  the  voice  now  hushed  had  last 
spoken  in  New  York  City. 

The  vast  audience  rose,  the  organ's  solemn  requiem  found  a 
deep  response  in  hundreds  of  sorrowing  hearts,  as  the  casket, 
draped  with  her  favorite  white  silk  flag  gleaming  with  golden  stars 
was  borne  into  the  church  and  tenderly  placed  in  a  garden  of 
heavenly  bloom.  The  platform  and  chancel  of  the  shadowy  old 
Tabernacle  had  been  transformed  by  those  who  loved  her  into  a 
tropical  bower  of  palms  and  bright  flowers. 

Rev.  Dr.  E.  S.  Tipple,  a  leading  young  clergyman  and  warm 
friend  of  Miss  Willard's,  conducted  the  simple  funeral  service  of 
the  Methodist  Church,  assisted  by  Rev.  Dr.  A.  E.  Kittredge,  Rev. 
Dr.  R.  S.  MacArthur,  Rev.  Frederick  B.  Richards,  Rev.  Dr. 
Charles  L.  Thompson,  Rev.  Dr.  Charles  H.  Payne,  and  Bishop 
John  H.  Newman,  who  offered  the  following  prayer: 

Gracious  God,  Father  in  heaven,  forgive  us  if  we  mourn  today  amid  this 
general  grief;  but  we  thank  Thee  that  we  do  not  mourn  as  those  without  hope, 
for  Thou  hast  given  us  hope,  and  we  come  to  Thee  with  thanksgiving  upon 
our  lips  for  all  Thy  loving  kindness  unto  this  beloved,  whom  Thou  hast  taken 
unto  Thyself.  We  praise  Thee  for  her  parentage.  We  thank  Thee  for  her 
power,  for  her  imperial  intellect,  for  that  vast  amount  of  useful  knowledge 
acquired  to  render  her  mission  efficient  and  successful,  and  we  thank  Thee 
above  all  things  for  her  loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ  in  good  report  and  in  evil 
report,  for  her  philanthropy,  for  her  sympathy  with  the  suffering  humanity  of 
all  continents;  and  we  bless  Thee  for  her  noble  convictions,  her  purpose  to  ele- 
vate the  race  to  sobriety  and  to  purity.  We  return  Thee  thanks  today  for  her, 
we  bless  Thee  for  our  association  with  her  in  the  great  reforms  of  life,  for  the 
sweet  influence  she  exerted  upon  us,  for  the  noble  example  she  showed  before 
others.  She  was  steadfast  amid  all  trials,  and  we  rejoice  in  that  beautiful  Chris- 
tian life  she  lived,  that  noble  heart,  that  consecration  of  all  her  powers  to  Thee, 
which  made  her  to  have  but  one  object  in  view  —  to  do  Thy  will  on  earth  as  the 
angels  do  it  in  heaven,  and  to  glorify  Thy  holy  Name.  And  we  bless  Thee  for 
that  quiet  death  that  Thou  didst  give  her,  that  she  might  peacefully  fall  asleep 
in  Jesus,  and  her  spirit  ascend  to  Thee,  her  Creator  and  her  Redeemer.  Now 


IN  MEMORIAM  301 

we  ask  Thy  blessing  on  all  those  noble  enterprises  in  which  she  was  engaged, 
that  they  may  reach  a  glorious  consummation.  Grant,  we  pray  Thee,  that  this 
cause  of  sobriety  which  she  pleaded  with  such  eloquence,  and  of  personal  purity, 
Christian  purity  —  this  cause  of  temperance  —  may  become  a  universal  fact.  May 
the  governments  of  the  world  put  forth  a  power  that  shall  restrain  inebriety; 
may  the  legislatures  of  the  world  hasten  to  the  redemption  of  humanity  from 
all  the  evils  that  grow  out  of  intemperance;  and  we  pray  especially  that  Thy 
blessing  may  rest  upon  these  noble  women,  these  sisters  that  are  banded  together, 
consecrating  their  hearts  and  their  lives  and  their  fortunes  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  these  great  purposes.  We  thank  Thee,  though  our  departed  one  has 
passed  from  life,  that  she  yet  lives  in  thousands  of  lives,  lives  in  the  thoughts,  the 
affections,  the  aspirations  of  many.  We  praise  Thee  for  this  corporate  immor- 
tality. We  pray  that  this  organization  which  she  represented  may  be  under 
Thy  guidance,  under  Thy  heavenly  inspiration  until  the  great  work  shall  be 
accomplished. 

And  we  pray  especially  for  that  dear  woman  who  was  her  traveling  com- 
panion on  sea  and  land,  whose  pen  was  the  pen  of  a  ready  writer;  and  bless 
that  precious  woman  beyond  the  seas,  the  companion  of  our  departed  one,  who 
is  today  thinking  of  this  funeral  occasion.  May  that  noble  woman  be  sustained 
by  Thee. 

Hear  and  answer  us,  and  when  this  brief  life  is  done,  may  it  be  well  done. 
May  all  our  powers,  having  been  consecrated  to  Thee,  attain  to  a  glorious  con- 
summation, and  may  we  be  more  and  more  consecrated  to  those  great  interests 
that  will  bring  about  the  millennium  of  Thy  glory.  May  we  be  more  and 
more  the  instruments  of  Thy  power,  so  that  at  last  when  life  is  over  we  may 
sleep  with  Jesus  and  meet  this  precious  woman  and  the  thousands  who  have  gone 
before,  anc},  above  all,  Christ,  our  Lord.  And  unto  the  Father,  Son  and  Holy 
Spirit  shall  be  the  glory,  world  without  end.  Amen. 

In  rich  tones  of  deep  emotion  and  earnestness,  Mrs.  L.  M.  N. 
Stevens,  Vice-President-at-Large  of  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U., 
read  the  Ninetieth  Psalm.  Mrs.  Mary  T.  Burt,  President  of  the 
New  York  State  Society,  announced  and  eloquently  read  the  hymn, 
' '  Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds  our  hearts  in  Christian  love, "  remind- 
ing White-Ribboners  in  a  few  touching  words  of  the  many  times  at 
the  close  of  National  Conventions,  with  hand  clasped  in  hand,  this 
hymn  had  been  sung  with  our  sainted  leader,  and  Miss  Cassie 
Smith,  National  Evangelist,  soothed  our  hearts  as  she  carried  their 
burden  to  the  God  of  all  comfort,  praying: 

Oh,  Lord,  we  thank  Thee  today  for  the  privilege  of  prayer.     We  thank 


302  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Thee  that  a  part  of  Thy  mission  to  this  world  was  ' '  to  bind  up  the  broken- 
hearted. ' '  We  represent,  and  bring  to  Thee,  the  sad  hearts  of  a  vast  multitude 
on  this  occasion.  And  yet,  though  ' '  sorrowful, ' '  we  are  ' '  rejoicing, ' '  and  come 
' '  into  Thy  courts, ' '  as  Thou  hast  taught  us,  ' '  with  thanksgiving. ' ' 

We  praise  Thee  for  the  wonderful  life  of  our  best  beloved  —  that  she  illus- 
trated as  well  as  loved  the  sentiments  of  this  hymn  — 

"  To  serve  the  present  age, 

My  calling  to  fulfill, 
Oh  may  it  all  my  powers  engage 
To  do  my  Master's  will." 

We  magnify  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  today,  in  that  she  was  enabled  so 
to  endure  the  ordeals  that  came  to  her  in  her  pilgrimage  that  they  were  made  a 
blessing  to  herself  and  to  others. 

We  praise  Thee  that  her  heart  was  filled  with  love  for  God  and  humanity, 
and  that  Thou  wast  her  Leader  in  the  accomplishment  of  her  world- wide  mission. 
We  thank  Thee  that  some  of  us  were  permitted  to  see  her  transfigured  at  the 
recent  W.  C.  T.  U.  Conventions.  We  bless  Thee,  on  behalf  of  our  ' '  White 
Ribbon  Host ' '  that,  while  our  human  leader  has  gone,  our  Savior  remains  with 
us.  We  ' '  lift  up  our  eyes  unto  the  hills  from  whence  cometh  our  help  ' ' ;  and 
while  we  praise  Thee  for  the  ministry  of  her  life,  we  plead  for  the  ministry  of 
her  death.  We  pray  that  more  may  be  accomplished  by  this  affliction  that 
touches  every  nation  of  the  world,  than  when,  like  her  Master,  she  ' '  went  about 
doing  good ' '  among  the  children  of  men.  We  thank  Thee  that  Thou  didst 
fulfill  to  her  Thy  promise — "  I  will  come  again  and  receive  you  unto  myself; 
that  where  I  am  there  ye  may  be  also,"  and  that  she,  "  of  whom  the  world  was 
not  worthy, ' '  has  heard  Thee  say,  ' '  It  is  enough,  come  up  higher. ' '  Help  us  to 
' '  follow  her  as  she  followed  Christ. ' '  Carry  on  Thy  work  through  those  who 
remain,  and  raise  up  others  to  take  our  places  when  we,  too,  shall  be  called 
home.  We  ask  all  in  Jesus'  name.  Amen. 

In  closing  the  simple  and  fitting  service  in  memory  of  a  great 
soul,  Doctor  Tipple  said,  "The  highest  tribute  we  can  pay  to 
Frances  Willard  is  to  mention  her  name,  sing  the  songs  she  loved, 
and  pray  to  her  God. " 

Was  ever  woman  so  beloved?  was  the  thought  of  those  who 
watched  for  hours  the  slow-moving  procession  of  rich  and  poor, 
representing  many  sects,  sections  and  races,  who  reverently  looked 
for  the  last  time  upon  the  face  of  their  friend,  each  New  York 
White-Ribboner  clacing  a  white  carnation  upon  the  casket. 


IN  MEMORIAM  303 

The  sad  journey  to  her  home  city,  Chicago,  was  made  in  a 
special  car,  in  which  the  casket  was  surrounded  by  flowers  and 
guarded  by  loving  hearts.  Stopping  briefly  at  Churchville, 
New  York,  Miss  Willard's  birthplace,  in  the  church  established 
by  her  grandfather,  loving  kinsfolk,  neighbors  and  comrades  of 
Monroe  County  united  in  a  memorial  service  led  by  the  brotherly 
pastors.  Mrs.  Helen  M.  Barker,  Treasurer  of  the  National 
W.  C.  T.  U.,  represented  the  White-Ribboners  in  the  following 
address : 

We  rejoice  in  this  life  that  has  been  given  to  us  and  to  the  world;  we  rejoice 
and  lift  up  our  hearts  in  thanksgiving  to  the  Giver  of  all  good  who  has  enabled 
her  to  accomplish  so  much  for  the  world,  for  all  those  who  are  afflicted  and 
oppressed,  and  we  see  in  her  mission  the  mission  of  Christ,  for  she  went  forth 
doing  His  work.  During  her  last  illness,  in  speaking  of  this  religion  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  which  was  the  secret  of  her  power,  she  said,  ' '  Tell  the  world  it  is  a 
home  religion,  it  is  a  religion  of  peace.  Tell  the  world  it  is  the  religion  of  love, 
tell  them  it  is  a  patriotic  religion."  In  her  life  she  honored  Christ;  she  did  not 
lose  her  faith  in  Him.  He  was  her  strength  and  inspiration.  Churchville  claims 
her;  Janes ville,  in  Wisconsin,  claims  her;  Chicago  claims  her;  New  York  claims 
her;  England  claims  her  especially;  the  world  claims  her.  She  did  not  belong 
alone  to  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union.  She  sympathized  with 
every  organization  of  men  and  women  that  worked  for  the  uplift  of  humanity, 
for  the  regenerating  of  sinful  hearts.  Hers  was  a  wonderful  mission,  and  to 
us  who  have  worked  with  her  closely  for  the  last  twenty  years,  who  have 
been  with  her  in  executive  counsel,  with  her  at  the  altar  of  prayer,  we  who 
know  what  she  was  to  us  and  to  our  work,  realize  our  great  loss  as  others 
cannot.  All  desire  to  honor  her,  and  how  are  we  to  do  it?  These  flowers 
are  fond  tributes  to  her  memory,  this  gathering  is  a  tribute  to  her,  but,  my 
sisters,  and  especially  my  sisters  of  her  native  State,  New  York,  how  can 
we  honor  this  loved  one  most?  I  answer,  not  with  these  flowers,  not  by  this 
service,  which  all  appreciate,  but  by  being  faithful  to  the  work  she  loved. 
Do  we  lack  courage?  Let  us  pray  that  some  of  the  indomitable  courage 
which  she  possessed  may  be  ours.  Are  we  inclined  to  criticise  ?  Let  us  have 
her  spirit  of  charity  and  love.  In  all  my  acquaintance  with  her,  I  think  I 
never  heard  a  disparaging  word  spoken  of  any  worker  that  our  beloved  did 
not  find  some  word  of  excuse  for  that  one,  and  she  would  say,  ' '  Oh,  we  do 
not  know,  perhaps  she  does  not  look  at  it  just  as  we  do;  perhaps  she  does  not  see 
it  from  our  angle  of  vision. ' ' 

And  now  my  message  to  you,  my  sisters,  in  the  words  of  Saint  Paul,  is, 


3o4  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

' '  Remember  my  bonds, ' '  and  when  we  are  led  to  criticise  one  who  does  not 
think  or  speak  as  we  do,  let  us  remember  that  there  may  be  something  hidden 
away  out  of  sight  that  binds,  something  in  the  home  that  cripples,  something  in 
the  early  education  that  hinders,  something  in  the  vision  that  handicaps,  and  so 
let  us  emulate  that  love,  that  sympathy,  that  charity  that  she  so  beautifully 
exhibited  in  all  her  life.  We  look  at  her  beautiful  form  and  say,  ' '  She  is  gone ' ' ; 
but,  oh,  she  has  not  gone,  she  will  continue  to  be  our  leader,  and  I  believe  from 
the  battlements  of  glory  she  will  watch  our  work.  I  believe  she  will  still  inspire, 
I  believe  she  will  whisper  to  our  consciences  thoughts  of  what  we  may  do  and 
what  we  ought  to  do;  and,  my  sisters,  how  much  we  need  her  !  But  the  Lord 
who  led  her  is  leading  us  today,  and  this  may  be  a  time  of  consecration,  inso- 
much that  from  this  day  forth  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  that 
she  so  loved  may  be  a  power  in  the  world  such  as  it  has  never  been  before. 
Then  she  shall  be  honored  ! 

We  say,  ' '  How  brief  her  life,  she  should  have  lived  twenty  years  longer ' ' ; 
but  if  we  measure  her  life,  not  by  days  and  weeks  and  years,  but  by  the  great 
work  she  has  accomplished,  by  the  enterprises  she  has  inaugurated  and  carried  on 
to  victory,  she  has  rounded  out  a  grand  old  age,  she  has  accomplished  more  in 
the  fifty-eight  years  of  her  life  than  many  of  us  would  do  were  we  to  live  one 
hundred  and  fifty-eight  years.  Into  that  brief  span  has  been  crowded  so  much  of 
brain  power,  of  heart  love,  of  the  burden  of  humanity,  and  how  beautifully  she 
has  borne  it.  I  say  there  has  been  crowded  into  this  life  so  much,  that  it  has 
been  a  long,  grand  life  —  a  life  so  broad  that  it  has  reached  to  the  extremities  of 
civilization  and  Christianity;  a  life  so  deep  that  no  poor  soul  had  ever  sunk  so 
low  that  her  love  and  sympathy  could  not  reach  it.  My  sisters,  let  us  praise 
God  this  morning,  that  we  have  been  permitted  to  come  into  close  relationship 
with  her  beautiful  spirit,  and  then  let  us  honor  her  by  going  out  to  do  the  work 
that  she  would  exhort  us  to  do  faithfully.  Let  us  in  this  divine  presence  pledge 
to  her,  pledge  to  God,  pledge  to  each  other,  that  we  will  be  more  loving,  more 
faithful,  more  self-sacrificing,  more  devoted,  and  that  we  will  honor  her  by  honor- 
ing the  God  she  loved  and  the  work  to  which  she  gave  her  life  and  which  she  has 
left  to  us. 

At  Buffalo  a  large  delegation  of  White-Ribboners  who  four 
months  earlier  had  joyfully  welcomed  their  President  and  the 
National  Convention,  passed  sorrowfully  through  the  car  leaving 
' '  lilies  of  love  and  loyalty "  and  singing  with  subdued  and  fal- 
tering voices, 

"  Some  day,  some  where,  we  shall  know." 

Silently  the  snowflakes  fell,  surrounding  us  with  a  white  world 
as  we  carried  our  dear  one  homeward.  Honored  representative 


LADY  HENRY  SOMERSET 
MISS  WILLARD'S  SUCCESSOR  AS  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  WORLD'S  W.  C.  T.  U. 


IN  MEMORIAM  305 

men  who  had  revered  Miss  Willard,  received  us  at  the  station  in 
Chicago,  and  as  the  casket  was  slowly  and  reverently  raised  to  the 
shoulders  of  the  bearers,  and  borne  along  the  tessellated  corridor 
of  Willard  Hall,  which  her  feet  had  so  often  trod,  it  was  preceded 
by  a  guard  of  honor  of  her  own  Illinois  women,  who  through  their 
tears  triumphantly  sang  the  old  Crusade  hymn, 

1 '  Rock  of  ages,  cleft  for  me, 
Let  mt  hide  myself  in  Thee." 

The  resting  place  of  state  in  Willard  Hall  seemed  like  a  plot  in 
Paradise,  so  fragrant  and  plentiful  were  the  floral  offerings,  so 
graceful  and  beautiful  the  decorations  of  purest  white.  Doves 
with  their  white  wings  outspread  hovered  in  midair  above  the 
peaceful  sleeper,  and  behind  the  palms  sweet  voices  sang  her 
favorite  hymns.  The  flags  of  the  city  floated  at  half-mast  all  day, 
while  silently  the  people  passed  to  take  a  parting  look  at  "their 
great  citizen. "  Said  The  Union  Signal :  ' '  Chicago  has  never  seen 
such  a  spontaneous  offering  as  the  multitude  laid  at  the  feet  of  our 
chieftain,  for  it  was  an  offering  of  love.  For  an  hour  before 
the  procession  reached  the  cross-surmounted  portal  of  Willard 
Hall,  there  were  crowds  waiting  for  admission,  and  for  another 
hour  they  patiently  stood  on  the  wet  pavement  with  the  cold  wind 
sweeping  in  sleety  gusts  against  them  before  they  gained  admit- 
tance. During  the  day  more  than  thirty  thousand  people  passed 
down  the  aisle,  each  one  pausing  a  moment  by  the  casket.  There 
were  children  lifted  in  their  parents'  arms,  there  were  decrepit  men 
and  women  who  leaned  upon  their  sons  or  daughters  for  support; 
many  hobbled  in  on  crutches,  and  some  looked  as  if  they  might 
have  newly  risen  from  a  bed  of  sickness.  Multitudes  stood  in  line 
for  hours,  and  through  it  all  there  was  no  evidence  of  morbid 
curiosity.  The  beautiful  decorations  were  a  secondary  matter  to 
the  desire  for  a  last  look  upon  the  dear  face  of  the  one  who  slept 
long  and  well.  Particularly  touching  to  White-Ribboners  at  head- 
quarters was  the  entrance  of  the  employes  of  the  printing  depart- 
ment of  the  Woman's  Temperance  Publishing  Association,  some 
eighty  men  and  women,  led  by  the  business  manager,  Mrs.  C.  F. 
20 


306  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Grow.  Miss  Willard  always  felt  a  peculiar  interest  in  everyone 
connected  with  the  work  of  the  Publishing  House,  in  whatever 
capacity,  and  had  the  love  and  loyalty  of  the  whole  force. 

At  the  noon  hour  a  brief  service  was  held.  Mrs.  Frances  J. 
Barnes,  General  Secretary  of  the  Young  Women's  Branch  of  the 
World's  W.  C.  T.  U.,  spoke  tenderly  of  our  promoted  leader; 
prayers  were  offered  by  Mrs.  Annie  O.  Rutherford,  President  of 
the  Canadian  W.  C.  T.  U. ;  Mrs.  Moses  Smith,  a  crusader;  Mrs. 
Frances  E.  Beauchamp,  Assistant  Recording  Secretary  of  the 
National  W.  C.  T.  U. ;  and  Mrs.  S.  M.  I.  Henry,  National  Evan- 
gelist. Mrs.  Lucy  J.  Thurman,  Superintendent  of  Work  among 
Colored  Women,  paid  a  special  tribute  to  the  greatness  of  heart 
that  enabled  Frances  Willard  to  take  into  her  active  sympathies 
all  creeds  and  all  races.  In  the  afternoon  Miss  Eva  Booth,  of  the 
Salvation  Army,  accompanied  by  a  number  of  young  women  on 
their  way  to  the  Northwest,  knelt  by  the  casket  while  the  Com- 
mander offered  a  fervent  prayer.  As  the  day  waned  and  the 
doors  were  to  be  closed,  Bishop  John  H.  Vincent  besought  our 
Heavenly  Father's  benediction,  closing  with  these  words: 

We  give  thanks  for  the  life  of  our  departed  sister,  for  her  loyalty  to  right- 
eousness and  purity,  for  the  sweet  charity  that  burned  in  her  heart,  dwelt  in  her 
eyes  and  went  forth  in  the  sweet  echoes  of  her  voice.  We  pray  that,  inspired 
by  her  example,  we  may  live  the  same  strong  and  earnest  life  and  do  good  service 
in  the  cause  she  loved  so  well. 

At  Evanston,  where  hundreds  were  assembled  at  the  station, 
the  University  students  acted  as  escort,  and  when  the  beloved  one 
was  carried  into  dear  Rest  Cottage,  her  young  relatives  softly  sang 
"Home,  Sweet  Home."  At  the  door  of  Rest  Cottage  was  fas- 
tened a  wreath  of  evergreen  gathered  by  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  and  the 
temperance  children  of  Oberlin,  Ohio,  from  a  hedge  planted  by 
Miss  Willard's  father,  and  in  the  dainty  parlor  hung  a  cluster  of 
evergreen  bearing  this  card:  "  Sweetbrier  that  Frank  planted, 
Janesville,  Wisconsin. "  Bright  flowers  filled  the  bay  window,  and 
friends  who  passed  quietly  in  and  out  felt  that  the  room  breathed 


IN  MEMORIAM  307 

the  heavenly  cheer  always  associated  with  the  presence  of  those 
who  had  been  its  life. 

A  simple  home  service  the  next  morning  preceded  the  cne  at 
the  church.  ' '  How  Firm  a  Foundation  "  was  sung  to  the  South- 
ern lullaby  air  loved  by  Miss  Willard.  Standing  beside  the  quiet 
form  of  her  friend  and  leader  Mrs.  L.  M.  N.  Stevens,  of  Maine, 
prayed  with  breaking  voice : 

Heavenly  Father,  come  near  and  tenderly  and  pityingly  hover  over  us  at 
this  hour.  We  thank  Thee  for  the  precious  life  of  our  beloved  —  so  full  of 
beauty  and  nobility.  Help  us  to  understand  what  she  meant  when  she  said, 
' '  How  beautiful  it  is  to  be  with  God. ' '  Help  us  to  know  more  of  that  other 
worldliness  of  which  she  spoke  and  taught.  We  thank  Thee  for  all  the  precious 
memories  that  cluster  around  Rest  Cottage;  for  the  life  of  Saint  Courageous;  for 
all  the  holy  influences  which  have  gone  out  from  this  home.  Wilt  Thou  in  ten- 
der love  bless  the  niece  and  nephew  of  our  beloved  and  the  other  family  mem- 
bers who  are  with  us  today,  and  the  absent  ones  wherever  they  may  be.  Wilt 
Thou  bless  and  comfort  the  one  who  has  been  to  our  promoted  leader  helper, 
companion,  more  than  friend,  who  has  been  faithful  even  unto  death.  Wilt  Thou 
console  that  great  heart  over  the  sea  who  is  cast  down  by  this  great  sorrow. 
Remember  the  White  Ribbon  sisterhood  everywhere.  Bless  the  world  —  for  she 
loved  the  whole  world.  We  humbly  pray  in  the  name  of  Christ  whom  she  loved 
so  much  and  served  so  loyally.  Amen. 

The  sweet  young  voices  of  the  quartette  were  again  heard  as 
the  soothing  words, 

"Gently,  Lord,  oh  gently  lead  us," 

floated  once  more  through  the  home,  and  the  benediction  was  pro- 
nounced by  the  venerable  Professor  Emerson  of  Beloit,  Wisconsin, 
in  these  words: 

Now  may  the  blessing  of  the  loving  Father  who  has  called  the  dear  daughter 
home,  and  of  the  loving  Brother  who  has  led  the  dear  sister  to  the  Father's  house, 
and  of  the  loving  Holy  Spirit  which  was  the  breath  of  her  life  here,  and  is  so 
there,  be  and  abide  with  us  all,  that  we  may  be  now  and  forever  with  the  Lord. 
Amen. 

Reverent,  patient  thousands  gathered  in  and  about  the  First 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  Evanston,  where  old  friends  and 
dear  were  to  speak  in  sacred  memory  of  the  exalted  life  of  their 


3o8  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

own  Frances  E.  Willard.  Love  had  outloved  itself  in  lavish 
expression  of  tenderness,  through  flower  and  fern  and  palm  and 
draperies  of  symbolic  white.  Behind  the  pulpit  hung  a  large  silk 
flag,  made  entirely  by  women's  hands  and  carried  at  the  head  of 
the  dedicatory  procession  of  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition  in 
1892.  The  owner  of  the  flag  had  affixed  an  inscription  which  read: 
' '  This  flag  has  traveled  over  four  thousand  miles  of  this  country, 
and  always  floats  in  the  interest  of  liberty,  peace  and  arbitration. 
It  floated  over  Miss  Willard  in  life,  and  we  want  it  to  float  over  her 
in  death. "  The  ' '  religion  of  patriotism  "  also  shone  forth  in  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  that  floated  from  the  organ  loft  and  draped  the 
speakers'  chairs  —  our  sacred  flag, 

"With  its  red  for  love,  and  its  white  for  law, 
And  its  blue  for  the  hope  that  our  fathers  saw 
Of  a  larger  liberty." 

At  this  Methodist  altar  Frances  Willard  had  knelt  alone  in 
the  presence  of  her  fellow-students  and  dedicated  her  young  life 
to  the  highest  ideals.  Now,  hundreds  of  students  rilled  the  galleries 
and  stood  in  the  aisles  to  do  honor  to  one  who  called  herself  their 
' '  elderly  sister, "  and  whose  glorious  and  Godlike  career  they 
desired  to  emulate. 

The  Willard  pew,  held  by  the  family  for  over  thirty  years, 
was  draped  with  white  and  filled  with  floral  offerings. 

The  words  of  the  solemn  processional  were  read  by  Rev.  Dr. 
Frank  M.  Bristol,  pastor  of  the  church.  Following  him  came  the 
faculty  of  the  Northwestern  University,  President  Henry  Wade 
Rogers  at  their  head,  and  the  pastors  of  the  Evanston  churches. 
The  casket  was  borne  by  six  students  of  the  college.  Honorary 
pallbearers,  General  Officers  of  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U.,  the 
White  Ribbon  Guard  of  Honor,  relatives  and  closest  friends  came 
slowly  after,  Miss  Willard's  nearest  relatives  present  being  Mrs. 
Katherine  Willard  Baldwin,  of  New  York,  and  Robert  A.  Willard, 
of  Florida,  daughter  and  son  of  her  brother  Oliver. 

"I  wonder  if  she  knows?"  was  the  tender,  unspoken  question 
of  many  a  heart,  as  the  casket  was  placed  before  the  altar,  amid 


IN  MEMORIAM  30$ 

such  a  scene  of  beauty  as  even  the  one  to  whom  it  was  consecrated 
had  rarely  seen  in  life.  The  casket  rested  on  a  rug  of  roses  and 
violets,  and  forming  a  radiant  arch  over  the  beloved  sleeper  was  a 
rainbow  of  spring's  blossoms  —  violets,  the  tender  blue  of  hyacinths, 
the  living  green  of  smilax,  pale-yellow  daffodils  and  the  deeper  glory 
of  the  crimson-touched  tulip  —  a  bow  of  promise  shining  through 
the  clouds.  She  has  gone  beyond  the  glory  of  the  rainbow,  but 
the  "everlasting  covenant"  remains.  Beneath  the  rainbow,  and 
caught  away  from  the  casket  by  a  hovering  dove,  was  a  broad 
white  ribbon  bearing  in  silver  letters  these  words,  the  last  spoken 
on  earth,  and,  may  it  not  be,  the  first  enraptured  cry  of  the  soul 
set  free  from  mortality :  '  'How  beautiful  it  is  to  be  with  God. " 

Bishop  Bowman  offered  prayer  and  the  choir  sang  Tennyson's 
immortal  ode,  ' '  Crossing  the  Bar. " 

President  Rogers  was  the  first  speaker,  taking  for  his  theme 

MISS  WILLARD  AS  A  UNIVERSITY  WOMAN  AND  AN  EDUCATOR. 

We  of  the  University  honored  and  loved  Frances  Willard.  Once  she  was 
dean  of  what  was  then  known  as  the  Woman's  College,  was  a  member  of  our 
faculty,  and  in  these  later  years,  of  our  Board  of  Trustees.  She  loved  the  Uni- 
versity and  was  proud  of  what  it  had  become.  A  few  years  ago  she  wrote  of  it, 
' '  It  greatly  outranks  any  other  west  of  Lake  Michigan,  and  richly  deserves  the 
name  of  '  The  Northwestern,'  in  the  modern  sense  of  that  great  and  comprehen- 
sive designation.  Steadily  may  its  star  climb  toward  the  zenith,  growing  clearer 
and  more  bright  with  each  succeeding  year. ' '  The  last  speech  she  made  in  this 
town,  which  she  delighted  to  call  "The  Methodist  Cambridge  of  the  prairies," 
her  "  ain  familiar  town,"  was  an  address  to  the  students  delivered  in  the  college 
chapel  only  a  few  weeks  ago.  How  little  we  thought  she  was  so  soon  to  pass 
beyond  the  veil!  But  had  she  known  then  that  her  life  was  fast  passing  on 
toward  the  twilight,  so  ready  was  she  to  go,  she  might  even  have  said  to  it: 

"Then  steal  away,  give  little  warning, 
Chose  thine  own  time, 

Say  not  good-night  —  but  in  some  brighter  clime 
Bid  me  good-morning." 

We  mourn  that  she  has  been  taken,  but  we  do  not  forget  that  she  was  given. 
She  has  done  a  great  work,  grown  weary  and  fallen  on  sleep.  May  the  beauti- 
ful spirit  which  dominated  her  life  inspire  us  all  to  nobler  things! 


3io  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

In  February,  1871,  she  was  elected  president  of  the  Evanston  College  for 
Ladies.  At  that  time  the  institution  had  no  connection  with  the  University. 
She  was  the  first  woman  to  be  elected  president  of  a  college.  It  is  due  to  her 
labors  that  the  town  authorities  gave  as  a  site  for  the  new  college  what  was  then 
one  of  the  chief  parks  of  Evanston.  Upon  that  site  was  built  what  is  now  known 
as  the  Woman's  Hall.  She,  with  others,  made  the  canvass  for  the  money  with 
which  it  is  erected,  and  brick  by  brick  she  watched  its  walls  as  they  climbed  high 
above  the  trees.  It  was  in  her  thoughts  by  day  and  by  night,  and  she  was  fond 
of  it.  She  said  of  it,  "  It  is  my  sister  Mary's  that  died,  and  it  is  mine." 

In  June,  1873,  the  institution  was  incorporated  with  the  University  under 
conditions  largely  dictated  by  her,  and  she  became  dean  of  the  Woman' s  College 
and  Professor  of  Esthetics  in  the  Faculty  of  Liberal  Arts.  As  professor  and 
dean  she  had  her  trials.  She  taught  the  classes  in  English,  and  met  them  in  the 
president's  room  in  University  Hall.  It  was  a  new  experience  for  college  men  to 
recite  to  a  woman  teacher.  They  tried  her  mettle  only  to  find  that  she  under- 
stood herself  and  them.  They  admired  and  respected  her.  She  was  popular 
and  inspiring,  and  in  every  way  a  successful  teacher.  It  is  an  ambition  worthy 
of  the  immortals  to  build  one's  own  life  into  the  lives  of  others,  and  this  she  was 
able  to  do  to  a  remarkable  degree. 

On  June  13,  1874,  she  resigned  her  office  as  dean  and  at  the  same  time  her 
professorship  in  the  University.  Speaking  of  it  years  after  she  declared  that  this 
severance  of  her  University  relations  was  the  greatest  sacrifice  her  life  had  known 
and  ever  could  know.  It  has  been  said  that  she  left  her  work  in  the  University  to 
devote  herself  to  the  cause  which  she  afterward  espoused  and  with  which  her 
name  is  henceforth  to  be  forever  identified.  That  she  did  not  do  so  is  known  to 
all  who  have  read  her  "Glimpses  of  Fifty  Years,"  in  which  she  wrote:  "It 
grieves  me  that  I  cannot  truthfully  say  I  left  the  deanship  of  a  college  and  a  pro- 
fessor's chair  in  one  of  America's  best  universities  on  purpose  to  take  up  temper- 
ance work. ' '  But  it  is  true  that  having  left  the  University  she  determined  upon 
temperance  work  in  the  face  of  tempting  offers  to  teach  elsewhere,  and  that  she 
held  to  that  work  though  attractive  positions  in  other  fields  were  open  to  her  all 
along  the  years  had  she  cared  to  occupy  them.  It  is  no  secret  that  she  volun- 
tarily withdrew  from  the  University  because  she  did  not  approve  of  the  policy 
which  the  faculty  had  at  that  time  adopted  respecting  certain  questions  of  admin- 
istration. "There's  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends,  rough  hew  them  how  we 
will."  There  were  other  kingdoms  awaiting  her  of  which  she  knew  not.  This 
was  an  hour  of  disappointment.  But  Ruskin  tells  us  that  in  the  secret  of  disap- 
pointment, as  in  the  twilight  so  beloved  by  Titian,  we  may  see  the  colors  of  things 
with  deeper  truth  than  in  the  most  dazzling  sunshine.  And  who  shall  deny  that 
as  she  sat  in  the  shadow  of  her  disappointment  it  was  revealed  to  her  what  her 
mission  was  to  be.  She  could  say, 


IN  MEMORIAM  311 

"  My  bark  is  wafted  to  the  strand 

By  breath  divine, 

And  on  the  helm  there  rests  a  Hand 
Other  than  mine." 

The  story  of  the  severance  of  her  relations  with  the  University  reveals  that 
gentleness  of  her  nature  which  so  impressed  us  all.  The  world  needs  nothing  so 
much  as  gentleness  and  kindness,  and  these  attributes  our  friend  possessed  in  an 
eminent  degree.  "Thy  gentleness  hath  made  me  great,"  says  the  Psalmist.  It 
made  Frances  Willard  great,  too,  and  you  may  gain  an  insight  into  the  beauty  of 
her  character  and  the  greatness  of  her  soul  from  the  facts  she  has  told  us  of  this 
crisis  of  her  life. 

On  the  night  she  resigned  as  dean  of  the  Woman' s  College  she  shut  herself 
out  of  sight  in  her  suite  of  rooms  at  the  college  and  with  agony  of  tears  gave  way 
to  her  anguish.  Let  me  tell  the  pathetic  story  of  what  transpired  as  she  has 
written  it,  for  it  reveals  the  tenderness  and  nobility  of  her  nature  as  no  words  of 
mine  can  do: 

' '  At  last  everything  grew  still  and  sweet  and  holy,  while  far  into  the  night 
the  deep  June  sky  bent  over  me  with  a  beauty  that  was  akin  to  tenderness.  The 
storm  in  my  soul  ebbed  away  slowly,  the  sobs  ceased,  the  long  sighs  were  less 
frequent.  As  dies  the  wave  along  the  shore,  so  died  away  forevermore  my  sor- 
row to  lose  the  beautiful  college  that  my  heart  had  loved  as  other  women' s  hearts 
love  their  sweet  and  sacred  homes.  In  the  long  hours  that  followed,  the  peace 
that  passeth  understanding  settled  down  upon  my  soul.  God  was  revealed  to  me 
as  a  great,  brooding,  motherly  spirit,  and  all  of  us  who  tried  to  carry  on  the 
University,  while  He  carried  on  the  universe,  seemed  like  little  boys  and  girls, 
who  meant  well,  but  who  didn't  always  understand  each  other.  The  figure  was 
of  children  playing  in  a  nursery,  and  one  little  boy  had  more  vigor  than  the  rest 
of  us,  and,  naturally,  wanted  us  to  play  his  way,  while  a  little  girl,  whom  I 
thought  I  could  identify,  said:  'No;  my  way  is  best!'  Then  a  deep  voice 
declared,  '  This  is  the  interpretation  —  good  to  forgive,  best  to  forget. '  And  then 
the  happiness  that  mocketh  speech  flowed,  like  the  blessed,  tranquil  river  of  dear 
old  Forest  Home,  all  through  my  soul,  and  overflowed  its  banks  with  quiet, 
happy  tears."  Soon  thereafter  she  went  to  the  president,  and,  extending  her 
hand,  begged  pardon  for  everything  she  had  ever  done  and  said  that  was  not 
right,  and  assured  him  that  she  desired  to  be  at  peace  with  God  and  every  human 
soul,  and  from  that  hour  on  they  were  the  best  of  friends. 

It  was  this  spirit  that  made  it  possible  for  her  to  say  that  she  did  not  know  a 
reason  why  any  human  being  should  hesitate  to  speak  to  her  with  cordiality  and 
kindness,  or  why  any  middle  wall  of  partition  should  exist  between  her  spirit  and 
any  other  human  spirit  that  God  had  made.  Had  she  not  sat  at  the  feet  of  the 


MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Prophet  Micah,  and  heard  from  him  what  it  was  that  the  Lord  required  of  her, 
that  she  was  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  her  God! 

She  was  one  of  the  early  advocates  of  the  higher  education  for  women.  This 
was  to  her  a  sacred  cause.  She  believed,  too,  in  the  co-education  of  the  sexes, 
and  was  wont  to  impress  upon  her  women  students  that  the  experiment  of  co-edu- 
cation was  on  trial,  and  that  in  some  degree  its  future  rested  with  them.  ' '  God 
help  you  to  be  good!"  she  said  to  them.  She  believed,  too,  in  the  principle  of 
self-government,  and  many  a  time  rejoiced  as  she  thought  how  true  and  self- 
respecting  a  set  of  girls  she  had  around  her.  One  who  disapproved  her  govern- 
ment said:  "The  trouble  is,  these  girls  are  quite  too  loyal;  they  make  a  hobby 
of  it." 

It  is  difficult  to  overestimate  what  the  influence  of  her  noble  nature  and 
magnetic  personality  would  have  been  upon  thousands  of  students  during  all 
these  years  if  her  work  had  continued  in  educational  lines,  what  inspiration  for 
high  and  noble  living,  what  pure  ambitions  to  love  and  serve  humanity,  what 
strong  endeavors  for  high  scholarship  and  great  achievement  would  have  been 
born  in  the  souls  of  the  students  coming  into  close  touch  with  her  great  soul. 
She  was  eminently  fitted  to  be  a  great  teacher.  One  who  has  the  power  of 
kindling  another  mind  with  the  fire  which  burns  in  his  own,  who  can  bring  his 
soul  into  such  close  and  loving  contact  with  his  students  that  they  are  stirred  by 
his  impulses  and  fired  with  his  enthusiasms,  has  in  the  highest  sense  the  teaching 
power,  and  is  described  as  the  ideal  teacher.  This  rare  gift  our  friend  possessed, 
and  in  high  degree. 

The  nations  of  Europe  seek  to  kindle  the  patriotic  ardor  of  their  subjects  by 
putting  on  speaking  canvas  the  immortal  deeds  of  their  great  men.  And  in  our 
own  country  a  grateful  public  or  generous  friends  enshrine  in  marble  or  bronze  or 
on  canvas  the  memory  of  those  whose  lives  have  been  a  blessing  to  humanity. 
It  is  a  gratifying  reflection  at  this  hour,  that  one  of  our  own  generous  citizens 
will  soon  place  in  the  keeping  of  the  University  the  face  of  this  woman  whose 
life  was  a  ministry  of  love,  and  whose  death  leaves  the  world  bereaved.  Genera- 
tions of  students,  as  they  look  upon  that  marble,  will  be  moved  to  noble 
living  by  the  memory  of  her  unselfish  services,  and  they  will  find  in  it  a  noble 
stimulus  to  purity  of  life,  and  to  a  consecration  of  their  powers  to  the  cause  of 
humanity. 

The  winning  personality  of  Frances  Willard  and  her  charm  of  soul  made  it 
possible  for  her  to  impress  herself  upon  her  students  in  a  manner  given  to  the  few. 
She  exerted  upon  them  a  far-reaching  influence,  not  only  by  the  thoughts  she 
expressed  in  her  classroom,  but  by  her  views  of  life  and  duty,  which  she  revealed 
to  them  in  her  personal  and  private  relations  with  them.  A  quarter  of  a  century 
has  almost  passed  since  she  retired  from  the  faculty,  but  those  who  were  asso- 
ciated with  her  in  those  days  have  preserved  pleasant  recollections  of  the  win- 


IN  MEMORIAM  313 

someness  of  her  personality,  and  the  attractiveness  of  her  spirit.  We  can  ask  no 
better  thing  today  than  that  the  benign  influence  of  this  refined,  devoted,  noble 
woman  and  teacher  may  abide  in  the  life  of  this  University  for  years  to  come. 
We  lay  upon  her  casket  here  today  this  tribute  of  our  love  and  admiration. 
She  has  entered  within  the  gate.  She  has  been  transfigured,  and  it  has  been 
granted  her  that  she  should  be  arrayed  in  fine  linen,  which  is  the  righteousness  of 
saints.  On  her  head  was  placed  a"  golden  crown,  and  she  was  girded  with  a 
golden  girdle.  All  the  bells  of  that  great  city,  the  holy  Jerusalem,  have  rung 
with  joy,  and  it  has  been  said  unto  her,  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant, 
enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 

Mrs.  Louise  S.  Rounds,  President  of  the  Illinois  W.  C.  T.  U. , 
spoke  of 

MISS    WILLARD    AS   A    PATRIOT. 

The  White  Ribbon  women  of  Illinois  feel  keenly  the  death  of  our  peerless 
leader,  Frances  E.  Willard!  Especially  are  we  bereaved,  for  in  a  very  sacred 
sense  she  belonged  to  this  great  State. 

As  a  Christian,  Miss  Willard  gathered  help  and  spiritual  power  from  all 
denominations  and  creeds,  always  finding  the  best  in  the  various  beliefs;  but 
"like  the  bees  which  return  to  their  home-cells  laden  with  their  gathered 
sweets,  so  she  brought  all  her  religious  treasures  back  to  the  altar  of  her  own 
cherished  church,"  to  which  she  was  always  a  loyal,  devoted,  consecrated 
member. 

She  was  accustomed  to  pivot  her  broad  faith  and  generous  charity  upon  this 
formula,  to  which  her  whole  life  bore  never-failing  testimony:  "No  word  of 
faith  in  God  or  love  toward  man  is  alien  to  my  sympathy. ' '  With  such  a  spirit 
she  was  fit  to  become  a  great  traveler,  and  all  countries  contributed  to  broaden 
her  love  for  humanity  and  increase  her  faith  in  God.  It  mattered  not  how  far 
away  she  wandered,  nor  under  what  flag  she  found  temporary  protection,  she 
always  returned  to  her  native  land  and  to  the  flag  she  loved  above  all  others  with 
renewed  feelings  of  loyalty  and  patriotism.  The  Stars  and  Stripes  were  to 
her  an  emblem  of  broader  freedom  than  other  countries  knew,  and  thus  indicated 
her  own  great  and  grand  spirit. 

How  painfully  sad  it  is  that  the  flag  which  is  displayed  from  the  platform  on 
this  sad  occasion  —  this  flag  which  she  loved  so  much  to  have  draped  in  conven- 
tion halls  where  she  presided  —  how  unspeakably  sad  that  this  flag  should  today 
wave  over  and  protect  the  legalized  liquor  system!  How  pitiable  that  the  curse 
for  the  extinction  of  which  she  gave  her  life,  should  find  protection  and  defense 
in  the  laws  of  our  land !  He  only  is  a  true  patriot  who  is  true  to  the  highest  and 
noblest  interests  of  his  native  land,  and  we  who  weep  today  over  her  cold,  pale 


MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

face  will  cherish  her  parting  message:  "Tell  the  women  not  to  forget  their 
patriotism."  And  we  will  not  give  up  the  conflict  until  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
shall  cease  to  float  over  a  legalized  saloon! 

Not  only  was  she  an  American  in  its  noblest  sense,  but  the  State  of  Illinois 
was  loved  by  her  as  perhaps  no  other  State  in  the  Union.  In  New  York  she  was 
born  and  in  New  York  she  died,  but  in  Illinois  she  lived  the  longest  and  did  her 
grandest  work. 

There  is  wonderful  significance  in  the  fact  that  the  ashes  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
the  grandest  man,  and  the  ashes  of  Frances  E.  Willard,  the  greatest  woman  in 
American  history,  have  been  committed  to  the  soil  of  this  beautiful  Prairie  State, 
here  to  rest  until  the  resurrection  morn  shall  summon  all  lands  and  even  the  sea 
to  give  up  their  dead. 

How  beautiful,  as  we  think  of  her  work,  and  in  what  harmony  with  her  life, 
are  these  words  which  dropped  like  dew  from  her  pen  many  years  ago :  ' '  Lord 
Jesus,  receive  my  spirit.  That  is  the  deepest  voice  out  of  my  soul.  Receive  it 
every  instant,  voluntarily  given  back  to  Thyself,  and  receive  it  in  the  hour  when 
I  drop  this  earthly  mantle  and  pass  onward  to  the  world  invisible,  but  doubtless 
not  far  off. ' ' 

Rev.  Dr.  Bristol  read  the  Crusade  Psalm,  and  never  did  its 
anthem  of  praise  and  prophecy  seem  more  harmonious  with 
events.  The  congregation  sang  —  as  best  it  could,  for  voices 
choked  with  tears  —  the  Crusade  Hymn, 

"  Give  to  the  winds  thy  fears, 
Hope  and  be  undismayed." 

Then  Mrs.  Clara  C.  Hoffman,  in  tender  speech,  bore 
witness  to 

MISS    WILLARD    AS    A    LEADER. 

We  have  not  come  here  to  weep  and  lament  and  cry  out  in  our  pain.  We 
have  come  to  rejoice.  Love  is  unselfish  and  must  rejoice  in  the  bliss  and  happi- 
ness of  its  beloved,  and  we  will  rejoice  though  with  falling  tears  and  breaking 
hearts. 

For  Frances  Willard  is  no  longer  the  ' '  uncrowned  queen  of  America, ' '  but 
crowned  a  queen  in  Heaven  —  no  more  to  droop  and  break  under  burdens  all  too 
heavy  to  bear;  no  more  to  suffer  contradiction  of  tongues;  no  more  to  have  pain 
and  weariness  of  a  body  all  too  fragile  to  keep  pace  with  a  spirit  so  eager,  so  alert 
and  intense,  and  with  a  mind  of  such  marvelous  versatility  and  power.  The  fet- 
ters of  flesh  drop  to  earth,  the  glad  soul  rises  and  revels  in  the  realms  of  light 
and  love  and  labor  without  weariness.  Aye,  we  will  rejoice! 


IN  MEMORIAM  315 

Our  beloved  was  a  great  leader  because  within  her  little  hand  she  held  the 
hearts  of  all  who  followed,  and  with  irresistible  charm  she  drew  those  who  lacked 
the  courage  to  follow.  All  loved  her,  because  she  loved  all.  All  trusted  her 
because  she  trusted  all. 

She  recognized  the  best  in  each,  and  each  reached  out  and  up,  and  made 
endeavor  because  its  best  was  recognized.  She  had  faith  in  humanity,  and 
humanity  believed  in  Frances  Willard.  She  did  not  seek  her  own,  but  with  all 
her  might  she  sought  the  greatest  good  for  all. 

She  had  that  within  herself  which  awoke  the  very  highest  and  noblest  in 
others.  She  was  honored  by  men,  and  loved  by  women  with  a  fervor  and  a  con- 
stancy unparalleled  in  history;  and  this  not  alone  in  the  New  World,  but  around 
the  globe.  Women  of  the  Orient,  the  Occident  and  the  islands  of  the  sea  lov- 
ingly gave  allegiance  to  Francis  Willard,  and  with  glad  willingness  followed 
where  she  led.  By  heroic  righteousness  of  word  and  deed  she  drew  thousands 
after  her  who  never  looked  upon  her  face,  or  felt  the  charm  of  her  gentle, 
gracious  presence. 

It  has  been  said  that  women  hold  no  lasting  friendships  for  each  other;  yet 
for  more  than  a  score  of  years  one  of  New  England's  truest  daughters  gave  the 
devotion  of  sister,  daughter  and  lover,  which  made  it  possible  for  Frances  Wil- 
lard to  achieve  the  very  best  for  womanhood,  and  the  strongest,  highest  type  of 
leadership. 

Across  the  seas  a  gifted,  pure-hearted  woman  of  nobility  is  stricken  in  soul 
today,  because  with  us  she  followed  hand  in  hand  —  with  us  she  loves  and  is 
loved. 

Transparently  frank  and  openly  ingenuous,  our  leader  never  stopped  to 
scheme  and  intrigue;  never  swerved  one  jot  or  tittle  from  the  straight  line  of 
righteous  principle.  Ever  gentlest  to  those  most  opposed,  she  won  all  true  hearts 
by  the  power  of  love.  By  this  sign  she  conquered. 

When  the  temperance  reform  shall  emerge  from  the  twilight  valleys  of 
unpopularity  and  assumed  impracticability  to  the  sunlit  hilltops  of  assured  victory — 
and  this  hour  will  come  —  then,  bright  and  glorious  among  all  who  have  dared 
and  achieved  for  humanity,  in  golden  letters  of  light,  will  stand  the  name  of 
Frances  Willard  —  our  beloved  Frances!  Multitudes  will  repeat  her  words, 
cherish  her  memory,  emulate  her  gracious  gentleness,  follow  in  her  footsteps. 
In  thousands  of  homes,  in  millions  of  hearts  she  is  enshrined  forever.  Manhood 
is  nobler,  womanhood  truer,  childhood  safer  because  Frances  Willard  has  lived. 
Her  voice  calls  ever  onward  through  duty,  upward  to  God. 

"Ah!  she  is  not  dead, 

Who  in  her  record  yet  the  earth  doth  tread, 
With  God's  fair  aureole  gleaming  round  her  head." 

All  hail  to  thee,  sister  beloved,  friend,  comrade,  brave  and  trusted  !    All  hail, 


3i6  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

adored  leader  !    We  shall  meet  again,  beyond  the  smiling  and  the  weeping.    Ah, 
beloved,  beloved,  farewell,  farewell ! 

The  Rev.  Dr.  J.  F.  Loba,  pastor  of  the  Evanston  Congre- 
gational Church,  followed  with  a  fervent  prayer,  in  which  all  hearts 
united.  He  thanked  God  ' '  for  the  benediction  of  this  life,  which 
in  the  midst  of  perplexity  and  doubt,  saw  clearly  that  the  only  way 
of  salvation  for  the  home,  the  city,  the  state,  the  country  and 
the  world  is  the  path  of  purity  and  righteousness  and  temper- 
ance, and  that  she  was  enabled  to  patiently  and  steadfastly  walk 
therein. " 

Mrs.  Katharine  Lente  Stevenson  fittingly  spoke  of 

MISS    WILLARD    AS    A    FRIEND. 

My  sisters  have  paid  their  tribute  to  our  best  beloved  as  patriot  and  as 
leader.  It  is  left  for  me  in  these  brief  moments  to  speak  of  her  in  the  special 
sense  in  which  she  was  to  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  a  friend  and  an 
inspirer  of  all  that  is  noblest  and  best.  Frances  Willard  knew  how  to  be  a 
friend.  It  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  be  a  friend  in  the  true  sense  of  that  word.  It 
requires  rare  traits  of  character.  There  must  be  truth  and  tact,  courage  and 
patience,  love  and  helpfulness.  She  possessed  all  these  qualities  in  the  fullest 
degree.  Hers  was  the  seer's  vision  to  look  beneath  the  apparent  real  and  dis- 
cover the  ideal,  which  after  all  is  the  only  true  real.  Hers,  too,  was  the  prophet's 
function  to  arouse  in  every  heart  the  longing  and  the  will  to  actualize  that  ideal 
until  it  should  become  the  apparent  real.  How  she  loved  we  know.  How  she 
loved,  thousands  know  all  over  our  land  today  as  they  sit  in  sore  anguish  count- 
ing over  her  tender  words  and  deeds,  as  the  rapt  saint  counts  the  beads  upon  her 
rosary.  We  call  her  the  friend  of  humanity,  and  she  was  that  in  the  broadest 
possible  sense,  but  she  was  the  friend  of  humanity  because  she  was  first,  last  and 
always  the  friend  of  the  individual  human  unit.  With  her  the  masses  were  never 
allowed  to  absorb  the  individual.  She  loved  humanity  in  the  abstract,  but  her 
love  for  humanity  in  the  abstract  was  born  and  nurtured  of  her  love  for  humanity 
in  the  concrete.  People  were  her  life,  friendship  was  her  native  air;  she 
radiated  friendliness;  she  took  all  the  world  by  the  hand,  and  showed  to  each  one 
with  whom  she  came  in  contact  her  throbbing  heart-beats  of  good  will. 

I  have  many  times  tried  to  analyze  the  elements  which  entered  into  this  rare 
friendliness,  to  discover  how  it  differed  from  that  which  we  meet  in  the  majority 
of  people  all  about  us.  I  have  asked  myself  during  these  sad  days,  when  I  with 
others  have  been  following  this  loved  form  on  that  weary  journey  which  began  in 


IN  MEMORIAM  317 

New  York  and  will  end  in  Rosehill,  what  it  all  meant.  What  did  that  concourse 
of  people  yesterday  in  Willard  Hall  mean?  The  crowds  that  stood  for  hours  in 
the  storm  waiting  to  catch  once  more  a  glimpse  of  that  loved  face  ?  What  do 
the  flowers  mean  that  today  surround  that  soft  gray  coffin  ?  What  do  the  tears 
mean  which  fall  from  every  eye  ?  Simply  this,  that  the  one  thing  the  heart  of 
humanity  is  hungering  for  is  friendship;  that  kindness  and  gentleness  are  the 
most  priceless  of  all  gifts  that  we  can  give  one  another  on  this  earth  ;  and  that 
this  woman  stands  in  the  thought  of  the  world  today  as  the  living  embodiment 
of  peace  and  good  will  toward  all  mankind. 

To  my  thought,  the  first  thing  noticeable  in  her  friendship,  which  after  all  is 
only  another  word  for  her  character,  was  its  reality.  She  was  the  most  real  per- 
son I  have  ever  known.  There  was  absolutely  no  guile  in  her.  She  showed 
forth  her  inmost  heart  with  a  sweet  frankness  which  seemed  to  take  the  whole 
human  family  into  confidence,  saying  to  them,  "I  feel  all  this  for  you,  and  I 
believe  you  feel  the  same  for  me."  Then  she  was  brave  in  her  friendships;  she 
dared  to  tell  her  friends  their  faults.  Who  of  us  that  have  come  closest  to  her 
does  not  remember  that  quaint,  pretty  way  in  which  she  would  say,  ' '  I  think  I 
have  a  case  against  thee,  dear, ' '  and  then  she  would  tell  out  the  case  without 
sparing  and  yet  with  such  sweetness  that  no  sting  was  left  to  rankle  in  one's 
mind.  She  of  all  others  could  tell  one  a  fault  because  she  was  so  constantly  telling 
of  virtues.  She  found  them  everywhere  because  her  beautiful  charity  magnified 
the  virtue  and  discovered  ground  for  praise  where  others  might  not  have  dreamed 
of  its  existence.  She  lived  in  the  ' '  sunshine  of  commendation  "  as  no  one  else 
I  have  ever  known  has  lived,  not  the  commendation  which  was  showered  upon 
her,  but  that  which  radiated  from  her  to  others. 

Her  friendship  was  marked,  too,  by  almost  infinite  tact.  No  one  would 
have  dared  to  do  the  brave  things  she  did,  or,  if  he  had  dared,  he  would  have 
been  unsuccessful  in  the  doing,  if  he  had  had  less  tact  than  she.  She  compassed 
things  which  were  necessarily  disagreeable  in  such  a  way  that  one  hardly  discov- 
ered how  disagreeable  they  had  been  until  they  were  accomplished.  She  never 
unnecessarily  antagonized,  and  therefore  she  won  her  way  by  her  sweet,  gracious 
tactfulness  through  many  obstacles  and  over  mountains  of  difficulty  which  would 
have  rendered  impossible  the  progress  of  one  less  divinely  gifted.  Nothing 
impressed  me  more  in  her  friendship  than  its  capacity  for  gratitude.  Indeed,  her 
mind  was  made  up  on  a  different  order  from  that  of  most  human  beings  in  that 
she  always  remembered  kindnesses  and  forgot  injuries.  I  have  in  thought  at  this 
moment  a  little  incident  that  occurred  when  I  was  with  her  last  summer  in  Ver- 
mont :  Just  as  we  were  getting  into  the  carriage  to  leave  beautiful  St.  Johnsbury, 
a  lady  came  to  her  whom  she  had  not  met  for  years,  but  she  remembered  her 
and  greeted  her  as  cordially  as  if  they  had  parted  but  yesterday,  inquiring  most 
tenderly  after  a  brother  of  the  lady's.  As  we  drove  away,  she  said,  "That  dear 


3i8  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

woman's  brother  was  very  kind  to  me  twenty-four  years  ago  in  Chicago."  I 
said,  "You  never  seem  to  forget  a  kindness,  Miss  Willard,"  and  she  looked  at 
me  for  a  moment  so  earnestly  before  replying,  "  I  should  hope  not;  ingratitude 
seems  to  me  the  basest  of  sins. ' '  It  was  a  sin  of  which  she  was  never  guilty. 
Indeed,  she  was  always  gathering  up  the  kindnesses  of  her  life  and  keeping  them 
in  tender,  perpetual  remembrance. 

There  was  a  rare  simplicity  about  her  dealings  with  her  friends  and  with  the 
world  at  large.  Only  a  great  woman  could  have  been  as  simple  as  was  she.  She 
used  to  take  her  audiences  into  her  confidence  with  a  beautiful  frankness  which 
always  disarmed  prejudice.  I  am  sure  they  felt  as  I  have  felt  many  times  in 
hearing  her  speak,  "  Why,  I  have  had  such  thoughts  often;  I  have  felt  just  like 
that  about  the  dear  old  home,  the  father  and  the  mother,  the  blessed  early  ties  of 
life,  but  I  never  dared  to  tell  them,  lest  people  should  not  understand. ' '  She 
dared;  she  took  it  for  granted  that  the  most  sacred  emotions  of  her  heart  she 
shared  in  common  with  all  humanity,  and  so  she  told  out  the  things  which  were 
most  precious  to  her,  and  by  that  very  telling  helped  and  strengthened  other  lives. 

The  scene  I  have  thought  of  most  often  during  these  days  of  our  terrible 
bereavement  has  been  of  that  visit  I  was  privileged  to  make  with  her  to  the  birth- 
place of  her  mother,  in  Vermont,  last  September.  A  little  schoolhouse  stood 
upon  the  old  lot,  and  the  people  were  gathered  together  from  all  that  country- 
side to  witness  the  ceremonies  connected  with  the  tree  planting  on  the  very  spot 
where  the  old  hearthstone  had  been.  She  talked  to  them  from  the  steps  of  that 
schoolhouse  out  of  her  very  inmost  soul;  she  talked  of  the  old  home,  with  its 
family  altar;  of  the  blessed  ties  of  love  and  friendship  which  had  bound  the 
neighborhood  together;  she  told  what  home  meant  to  her,  and  what  her  work 
had  been  for  the  protection  of  the  home.  As  she  talked,  tears  streamed  down 
many  bronzed  and  furrowed  cheeks,  and  one  old  farmer  seemed  to  voice  the 
thoughts  of  all  when  he  said  afterward,  ' '  That  was  the  most  homey  talk  I  ever 
heard."  All  her  talks  were  "homey,"  and,  indeed,  her  entire  life  was  set  to  the 
music  of  ' '  Home,  Sweet  Home. ' ' 

Faith  was  as  truly  a  ruling  characteristic  of  her  friendship  as  of  her  religious 
nature.  She  believed  in  God  ;  He  was  the  most  real  fact  in  the  universe  to  her, 
but  she  also  believed  in  men  and  women  as  sons  and  daughters  of  God  ;  and, 
because  she  believed  in  them,  because  she  always  saw  the  possible  shining  through 
the  apparent,  she  raised  them  to  a  plane  of  belief  in  themselves.  There  are' 
countless  men  and  women  all  over  the  world  today  living  useful  lives,  filling 
positions  of  trust  and  responsibility,  who  owe  to  Frances  Willard  all  that  they 
are,  because  her  word  first  aroused  their  dormant  powers  and  gave  them  faith  in 
themselves.  She  more  fully  than  any  human  being  I  have  known  obeyed  George 
Macdonald's  words,  "The  thing  I  must  be  when  I  can,  love  now  for  faith's 
dear  sake." 


IN  MEMORIAM  319 

I  have  often  thought  that  the  highest  eulogy  paid  to  anyone  in  the  Bible  is 
that  passage  in  which  Moses  is  spoken  of  as  the  friend  of  God.  Standing  beside 
the  bier  of  Frances  Willard,  I  am  sure  that  without  irreverence  we  may  apply 
the  same  words  to  her;  she  was  the  friend  of  God,  but  how  did  she  prove  her 
fitness  to  bear  that  high  title  ?  Not  by  spending  her  days  in  rapt  contemplation, 
but  by  proving  herself  daily,  hourly,  through  long  years,  the  friend  of  man  —  man 
made  in  the  image  of  God.  She  always  saw  the  Lord  among  His  people,  and 
recognized  that  her  service  to  Him  must  be  given  in  service  to  them.  She  had 
known  how  beautiful  it  was  to  be  with  God  long  before  she  fell  upon  that  sweet 
sleep,  and  the  heart  of  that  beauty  she  had  found  to  consist  in  being  with  men  in 
loving,  constant  service.  Dead!  Frances  Willard  is  not  dead;  she  is  alive  for- 
evermore,  and  this  is  the  lesson  which  comes  to  us  from  that  casket  today;  this  is 
what  she  would  say  to  us  if  she  could  speak  from  Heaven :  ' '  Serve  God  by  serv- 
ing men,  love  God  through  loving  man,  bring  the  beauty  of  holiness  into  the 
everyday  life,  and  lift  humanity  up  to  its  rightful  plane  of  sonship  to  the  Father, 
and  brotherhood  each  to  the  other." 

It  was  touching  and  peculiarly  significant  when  Miss  Johanns- 
dottir,  President  of  the  Iceland  W.  C.  T.  U.,  in  broken  accent 
and  with  breaking  heart,  gave  her  simple  testimony  to  our  leader's 
love  for  other  lands.  "Through  her,  women  all  the  world  over 
are  sisters, "  she  said.  ' '  Over  her  grave  we  can  stretch  our  hands 
to  each  other  and  make  our  life  as  she  hoped  we  might  make  it, 
and  so  carry  her  work  on." 

Dr.  Milton  S.  Terry,  of  the  Garrett  Biblical  Institute,  con- 
tributed the  following  exquisite  poem: 

TRANSFIGURED. 

Is  that  soft  light  a  star? 
Or  through  the  dimness  of  our  tearful  eyes 
Are  we  descrying  in  the  open  skies 

Some  lovelier  sight  afar? 

Perhaps  to  us  is  given 
Another  vision  of  that  wondrous  sign 
Revealed  of  old  to  St.  John,  the  divine, 

When  in  the  open  heaven 

By  angels  guarded  round, 
Was  seen  a  woman  with  the  sun  arrayed, 


320  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

The  moon  beneath  her  feet,  and  her  fair  head 
With  twelve  stars  brightly  crowned. 

I'm  sure  I  see  a  light 
That  beckons  many  to  a  holier  sphere, 
And  with  its  steady  shining  calm  and  clear 

There  seems  to  be  no  night. 

'Tis  the  transfigured  face 
Of  saintly  gifted  Prophetess  serene, 
Whose  woman-soul  could  take  of  things  unseen 

And  give  them  sightly  grace. 

To  her  God's  love  assigned, 
Amid  the  rush  of  human  cares  and  fears, 
Nigh  threescore  beautiful  and  hallowed  years 

To  honor  womankind. 

Say  not  "She  is  not  here"; 
Methinks  her  eye  beams  with  a  brighter  ray, 
And  never  mightier,  sweeter  than  today 

Was  her  voice,  far  or  near. 

And  woman's  rights  and  wrongs, 
And  mortal  sorrows,  and  the  drunkard's  woes, 
And  virtue's  claims,  by  her  life's  sudden  close 

Have  found  ten  thousand  tongues. 

Hushed  are  all  envies  now, 

Nor  breathes  the  soul  would  take  away  from  sight 
One  ray  of  the  aureole  of  light 

That  gathers  round  her  brow. 

O  pure  white  life  divine ! 
Translated  into  everlasting  day 
Thou  shalt  pass  never  from  our  hearts  away, 

For  Christ's  own  loves  were  thine. 


MRS.  MARY  B.  WILLARD  AND  HER  DAUGHTER  MARY 


A  GROUP  OF  FRANCES  E.  WILLARD'S  NAMESAKES 


IN  MEMORIAM  321 

Rev.  C.  J.  Little,  D.D.,  president  of  the  Garrett  Biblical  Insti- 
tute, made  the  principal  address  of  the  service  on  the  subject  of 

MISS  WILLARD'S  PUBLIC  LIFE. 

Frances  Willard  reminded  me,  whenever  I  listened  to  her,  of  Matthew 
Arnold's  definition  of  religion,  "Morality  touched  by  emotion."  She  was  a 
conscience  aglow  with  divine  light. 

Her  departure  from  Northwestern  University,  with  its  attendant  circum- 
stances, caused  her  intense  pain;  the  remembrance  of  it  was  never  without  its 
tinge  of  grief.  And  yet  this  departure  was,  in  the  old  New  England  phrase,  a 
divine  enlargement,  the  breaking  of  the  chains  that  held  her  back  from  destiny. 

Her  strong  and  only  impulse  at  the  time  was  toward  the  Temperance  Cru- 
sade movement,  then  at  its  height.  The  religious  fervor,  the  ethical  purpose, 
the  moral  martyrdom  and  the  feminine  character  of  this  movement  appealed  to 
her  faith,  her  conscience,  her  courage,  and  her  conception  of  woman's  latent 
power,  and  so  she  entered  it  "with  a  heart  for  any  fate." 

Her  wisest  counselors  dissuaded  her.  Even  her  intrepid  mother  advised 
against  it.  Mrs.  Livermore  alone  of  her  friends  commended  her  resolve.  But 
wherewithal  should  she  and  her  darling  mother  be  fed  and  clothed  ?  The  noble 
women  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  of  Chicago,  whose  presi- 
dent she  became,  would  willingly  have  answered.  But  she  intended  to  live  by 
faith.  She  would  trust  God. 

"  Frank,"  remonstrated  her  brother  Oliver,  "  your  faith  method  is  simply  a 
challenge  to  the  Almighty.  You've  put  a  chip  on  your  shoulder  and  dared 
Omnipotence  to  knock  it  off."  But  God  only  smiled  in  His  heaven  and  tried 
His  child  a  little  longer.  She  did  not  always  have  enough  to  eat,  and  often  when 
weary  with  working  and  walking,  she  lacked  the  nickel  for  her  carfare.  Soon 
she  fell  sick  from  hardship  and  overwork.  And  thereupon  her  mother  chided 
her  into  a  wiser  conception  of  God  and  a  wiser  method  of  life.  She  consented 
to  accept  a  salary  from  the  women  of  the  Christian  Temperance  Union  of  Chi- 
cago, and  thus  the  slender  Wisconsin  schoolmistress  started  out  to  be  a  teacher 
of  the  world. 

All  great  moral  careers  grow  out  of  the  concurrence  of  conscience  and  of 
opportunity;  the  compulsion  of  the  soul  combines  with  the  compulsion  of  cir- 
cumstance, and  the  real  life  begins.  Years  before  she  had  wanted  to  say  some- 
thing, but  wfiat  was  it  ?  And  now  the  disclosure  came.  All  else  had  been  a 
preparation  for  it;  her  maiden  shyness  and  her  maiden  independence,  the  inspi- 
ration of  her  home,  the  revelations  of  nature  and  of  books,  the  experiences  of 
travel,  the  trials  of  the  schoolroom,  her  search  for  God,  her  aspirations,  her 
ambitions  and  her  sorrows.  The  literary  gift  and  the  magic  of  speech  were  a  part 

21 


322  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

of  her  inheritance.  And  yet  she  trembled  to  appear  in  public.  She  had  lectured 
in  Centenary  church,  Chicago,  in  1871.  And  this  first  public  utterance  contains 
the  germ  of  all  she  said  and  did  in  after  years.  The  sorrowful  estate  of  women 
throughout  the  world  gave  her,  she  declared,  the  courage  to  become  a  public 
speaker.  It  gave  her  more.  It  gave  her  the  vision  of  the  woman  of  the  future 
for  whose  coming  she  thought  and  wrote  and  planned  and  prayed.  But  not  until 
1874  did  she  begin  to  speak  with  all  her  might,  for  then  came  to  her  the  sign  by 
which  she  was  to  conquer,  "  FOR  GOD,  AND  HOME,  AND  NATIVE  LAND." 

Frances  Willard  had  the  gift  of  eloquence.  She  was  a  subtle,  thoughtful, 
thrilling  talker.  Her  presence  was  not  imposing,  yet  it  was  always  tranquilizing 
at  the  beginning,  and  afterward  full  of  sweet  surprises.  Her  voice  was  clear  and 
melodious  and  strong,  with  a  peculiar  quality  of  blended  defiance  and  deference, 
of  tenderness  and  intrepidity  that  gave  it  an  indescribable  ring.  Her  diction 
was  studiously  simple;  her  reasoning  luminous  and  homely;  her  illustrations 
full  of  poetry  and  humor;  her  pathos  as  natural  as  tears  to  a  child.  She  was 
wholly  unaffected,  taking  her  audience  so  deftly  into  her  confidence  that  she  con- 
quered them,  as  Christ  conquers,  by  self-revelation. 

There  was  sometimes  a  lyric  rapture  in  her  utterance  that  wrought  her 
hearers  into  a  delirium  of  anticipation.  The  New  Jerusalem  of  the  twentieth 
century,  the  transfigured  homes  of  a  new  commonwealth,  seemed  to  be  so  near 
and  so  real.  And  there  was  always  when  she  talked  to  women  and  to  men  such 
a  sublime  confidence  in  their  latent  nobility  and  their  ultimate  righteousness  that 
for  a  time,  at  least,  they  became  in  their  own  eyes  the  beings  that  she  pictured 
them,  and  sat  enchanted  with  the  revelation.  This  blending  of  prophetic  ecstasy 
with  practical  shrewdness,  of  rapture  with  woman's  wit,  gave  to  her  tongue  the 
accent  of  both  worlds.  The  note  of  gladness  with  which  she  mentioned  Christ 
(and  she  did  it  often)  lifted  her  auditors  into  the  presence  of  her  divine  Com- 
panion, and  then  the  childlike  mockery  with  which  she  pelted  some  feminine 
folly  or  some  masculine  stupidity  dissolved  the  splendor  again  into  ripples  of 
human  merriment  that  brought  her  listeners  safely  back  to  mother  earth.  Web- 
ster was  majestic;  in  the  days  of  his  grandeur  men  trembled  at  his  godlike 
flashes.  Beecher  was  superbly  human,  conquering  and  controlling  multitudes  by 
his  rich  and  robust  and  royal  manhood.  Wendell  Phillips  was  demonic,  casting 
his  auditors  into  chains,  and  arousing  within  them  all  the  elemental  passions. 
But  Frances  Willard  attracted  and  enchanted;  she  spake  as  never  man  spake, 
and  yet  with  the  charm  of  Him  who  conquered  the  grave  in  order  to  restore  the 
shattered  home  at  Bethany. 

The  Willard  children  had  a  genius  for  organization;  they  played  at  forming 
clubs  and  making  societies.  Frances  developed  this  skill  during  her  years  of 
teaching.  She  managed  her  pupils  with  rare  tact,  choosing  for  them  both  the 
direction  and  the  method  of  activity.  But  the  fullness  of  this  power  never 


IN  MEMORIAM  323 

revealed  itself  until  she  became  the  president  of  the  National  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  Union  in  1879.  She  stood  for  a  liberal  and  a  radical  policy,  and 
was  indeed  the  incarnation  and  the  inspiration  of  it.  Of  the  multiplied  energies 
that  began  to  cluster  around  her  fertile  brain  and  nimble  fingers  I  have  no  time 
to  tell.  They  proved  too  many  for  her  at  the  last,  exacting  as  they  did  a  super- 
human strength  of  mind  and  will,  and  pulling  at  her  heartstrings  all  the  time. 

Miss  Willard  has  been  criticised  severely  for  her  transformation  of  the 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  into  a  political  organization,  and  just  as 
severely  for  her  blending  with  the  cause  of  temperance  the  cause  of  woman  suffrage 
and  various  projects  of  social  reform.  But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  from  her 
point  of  view  this  was  logical  and  inevitable.  She  was  an  idealist  and  not  an 
opportunist.  They  misjudge  her  who  suppose  that  any  merely  negative  move- 
ment could  have  absorbed  her  wholly.  Her  famous  motto  lays  bare  her  inmost 
thought.  The  excitement  of  the  Crusade  had  revealed  to  her  an  opportunity 
and  started  her  upon  a  great  career.  But  her  intellect  was  too  strong  and  too 
sagacious  not  to  perceive  that  temperance  was  after  all  not  the  chief  question. 
The  chief  question  was  the  home.  Whether  men  should  drink  or  not,  affected 
women  so  profoundly,  because  their  drinking  polluted  domestic  life,  destroyed 
the  family,  corrupted  the  blood  of  unborn  children  and  perpetuated  the  barbar- 
isms of  masculine  law  and  masculine  tradition.  She  perceived  that  the  ideal 
home  which  was  denied  to  her  personally,  but  which  hovered  constantly  before 
her  as  the  prize  and  perfection  of  the  future,  must  be  held  up  before  her  sisters 
and  her  brothers  as  the  real  goal  of  human  effort.  This  involved,  however,  the 
lifting  of  women  to  another  plane —  the  plane  of  political  equality  with  men.  It 
involved  also  the  lifting  of  the  masculine  standard  of  morality  to  that  agreed 
upon  for  all  true  women,  so  that  the  movement  for  purity  blended  itself  inevitably 
with  the  movement  for  prohibition.  Nor  could  she  fail  to  see,  when  she  studied 
the  problem  deeply,  that  the  cause  of  drunkenness  and  domestic  misery  among 
the  poorer  classes  was  largely  economic.  This  created  a  sympathy  with  labor 
movements  and  labor  organizations  which  urged  her  quite  rapidly  toward  the 
newer  social  ideas  that  alternately  attract  and  repel  the  modern  mind. 

It  was  natural  for  Mr.  Gough  to  confine  his  philanthropic  efforts  to  the  tem- 
perance work  and  to  the  principle  of  total  abstinence;  it  was  equally  natural  for 
Henry  George  to  expect  the  regeneration  of  society  from  purely  economic 
change.  But  Frances  Willard' s  mind  was  at  once  too  broad  and  too  deep,  and 
her  conception  of  woman's  place  in  society  too  exalted  for  her  to  grasp  the  tem- 
perance problem  or  the  economic  problem  in  this  one-sided  fashion.  "  Society," 
she  rightly  said,  "needed  mothering."  She  was  indeed  a  preacher  of  temper- 
ance and  of  a  new  commonwealth;  but  she  was  also  the  soul  of  chastity, 
heralding  a  nobler  maternity  than  the  world  had  dared  to  dream  of  hitherto; 


324  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

and  therefore  the  herald  of  a  nobler  manhood,  a  nobler  society,  and  a  nobler 
humanity. 

Like  all  idealists  in  the  history  of  social  progress,  she  took  little  account  of 
time,  so  that  the  results  of  future  centuries  seemed  as  the  stars  do  to  the  children 
of  transparent  skies,  just  above  her  head.  And  this  immediateness  of  the  heav- 
enly vision  made  it  possible  for  her  to  work  and  to  tarry  for  it.  She  knew  that 
it  would  surely  come. 

' '  The  benefactors  of  humanity, ' '  writes  Amiel,  ' '  are  those  who  have  thought 
great  thoughts  about  it."  For  the  human  race  needs  heartening  always;  ideas 
must  be  translated  into  hopes  in  order  that  faith  may  overcome  the  world.  And 
Frances  Willard  translated  her  ideas  of  home  and  of  society  into  a  great  hope, 
with  which  she  thrilled  the  women  that  surrounded  her.  As  this  great  hope 
transfigured  her,  old  prejudices  lost  power.  She  stretched  forth  her  loving  hands 
to  the  women  of  all  creeds  and  of  all  sections,  to  the  women  of  the  South  and 
the  women  of  England;  the  past  was  forgotten  in  the  rapture  of  a  great  expecta- 
tion. The  daughter  of  the  abolitionist  embraced  the  daughter  of  the  slaveholder; 
the  child  of  the  American  democrat  found  her  last  great  sister  in  the  child  of  the 
English  nobleman;  the  daughter  of  the  Puritan  knelt  beside  the  Catholic  mother 
who  prayed  to  Mary  as  she  prayed  to  God. 

Among  the  precious  relics  of  her  latest  days  is  a  little  scrap  of  paper  con- 
taining these  beautiful  words  of  T.  P.  O'Connor:  "  Why  should  we  talk  of  the 
futility  of  life  and  lose  ourselves  in  vain  regrets  as  if  dreams  and  mere  personal 
longings  were  all  we  had  to  live  for  ?  Life  is  futile  to  those  only  who  seek  for  its 
fruits  in  self-gratification.  To  those  who  see  in  it  an  ever-enduring  conflict  for 
others  it  is  ever  fresh  and  full,  a  joy  and  an  inspiration  and  a  hope.  Ring  out, 
then,  ye  Sunday  bells  !  I  awake  from  my  selfish  dreams.  I  am  a  worker,  a 
fighter  and  a  man  again  ! ' ' 

On  the  margin  of  this  scrap  of  paper  is  written  in  trembling  characters  the 
following  simple  words:  "As  the  outcome  of  a  life's  experience  I  rejoice  in 
these  brotherly  words  of  T.  P.  O'Connor.  Frances  E.  Willard,  New  York, 
January  29,1898." 

"The  outcome  of  life's  experience!"  She  knew  it  then  !  The  Sunday 
bells  were  ringing  her  a  welcome  home  !  She  had  done  what  she  could  !  She 
had  given  her  life  to  the  poor  and  had  followed  Jesus  Christ.  She  was  going  to 
Rest  Cottage  and  to  her  heavenly  wages  and  to  the  great  white  throne. 

Did  she  die  too  early  ?  God  must  answer  that,  not  we.  She  might  have 
lived  longer,  if  she  had  learned  to  spare  herself,  but  then  she  might  have  lived 
less.  Her  fifty-eight  years  were  rich  in  experience  and  in  thought,  in  grief  and  in 
aspiration,  in  affection  and  admiration  and  achievement.  They  were  indeed  more 
than  centuries  of  common  life.  They  were  for  her  "years  of  enduring  conflict 
for  others  " ;  for  she  was  a  worker,  a  fighter,  a  woman.  And  the  shock  of  her 


IN  MEMORIAL  325 

death  reveals  the  weight  of  her  influence.  She  is  no  longer  a  voice  and  a  cor- 
poreal enchantment  weaving  about  us  the  spell  of  a  luminous  conscience  and  a 
pure  heart.  She  has  taken  her  place  in  the  choir  invisible  —  the  choir  audible 
forever  to  God  and  to  humanity.  Whatever  may  be  the  future  of  the  methods 
from  which  she  expected  such  political  and  social  transformations,  her  ideal  of 
home  will  not  perish  from  the  earth.  The  strong  and  serious  women  of  the  future 
will  be  her  daughters,  and  as  they  bow  the  more  to  reason  and  to  conscience,  her 
image  and  her  voice  will  guide  them  from  the  shadows  of  ancient  bondage  to  a 
companionship  with  men  in  which  the  perfect  interchange  of  thought  and  the 
perfect  harmony  of  action  will  reshape  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  establish 
beneath  new  stars  a  whiter  and  a  happier  commonwealth. 

Rev.  Charles  F.  Bradley,  D.D.,  Professor  of  New  Testament 
Exegesis  of  the  Garrett  Biblical  Institute,  in  the  closing  address 
spoke  of 

MISS    WILLARD    AS    A    WOMAN   AND    A    FRIEND. 

It  was  thought  fitting  that  the  tributes  to  Miss  Willard  as  a  public  leader 
should  be  followed  by  a  few  words  concerning  her  as  a  woman  and  a  friend. 

Yet  it  is  impossible  to  mark  here  a  well-defined  separation.  In  a  rare  degree 
she  threw  her  whole  self  into  all  her  work.  It  was  as  a  woman  and  a  friend  that 
she  taught,  wrote,  spoke,  organized  vast  forces  and  led  them  in  the  war  for 
righteousness.  In  public  as  in  private  life  she  was  ever  womanly  and  always 
friendly.  The  wealth  of  her  regnant  nature,  the  fruits  of  her  varied  culture,  the 
consecration  of  her  devoted  life  —  all  these  she  carried,  with  her  simple  gracious- 
ness,  into  the  intimacies  of  private  life.  The  mourning  of  millions  today  is  over 
the  loss  from  our  midst  of  a  great  woman  and  a  friend  of  mankind  such  as  the 
world  has  seldom  known.  A  certain  Roman  Catholic  sisterhood  bears  the  affect- 
ing title  of  ' '  Little  Sisters  of  the  Poor. ' '  Of  Miss  Willard  it  may  be  truly  said 
that  she  was  the  sister  of  everyone,  rich  or  poor.  Everywhere  she  went  she  met 
people  with  a  winning  smile  and  a  cordially  extended  hand.  She  believed  pro- 
foundly that  God  is  our  Father  and  that  we  are  all  brothers  and  sisters.  These 
beliefs  were  to  her  more  than  articles  of  an  accepted  creed;  far  more  than  beauti- 
ful sentiments.  They  were  the  controlling  principles  of  her  daily  life.  Beyond 
any  woman  of  her  age,  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  of  any  age,  she  has  a  right  to  the 
title  of  the  Sister  of  Man.  Everything  which  that  name  can  signify  of  wise, 
strong  and  loving  helpfulness,  that  she  was  in  purpose  and,  according  to  the 
measure  of  her  strength,  in  fact  to  all. 

Yet,  speaking  of  friendship  in  its  ordinary  sense,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive 
the  extent  of  her  circle  of  friends;  to  estimate  the  numbers  of  those  in  England 
and  America  and  in  other  lands,  who  have  the  right  to  say  of  her,  ' '  She  was  my 


326  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

friend. ' '  It  was  out  of  a  wide  experience  that  she  framed  the  new  beatitude, 
' '  Blessed  are  the  inclusive,  for  they  shall  be  included. ' '  One  who  knew  her  well 
has  said:  "  In  nothing  is  she  more  marked  than  in  her  lavish  kindness  and  truth 
to  friends.  It  would  be  impossible  to  say  how  many  lives  which  have  touched 
hers  have  been  inspired  to  nobler  purposes;  have  realized  the  balm  of  her  sym- 
pathy in  sorrow  and  the  help  of  her  wisdom  in  perplexity;  have  proved  that  even 
her  wounds  are  the  faithfulness  of  a  friend  whose  very  loyalty  was  demanding  of 
them  their  best. ' ' 

But  Miss  Willard's  life  has  not  only  been  marked  by  a  universal  friendliness 
and  blessed  by  a  liberal  host  of  friends,  to  each  of  whom  she  gave  her  affection 
in  rich  measure;  it  has  also  been  distinguished  by  a  few  extraordinary  friendships. 
It  is  not  the  least  of  the  sorrows  of  this  hour  that  those  who  alone  could  speak 
adequately  of  the  deepest  things  are  unable  to  speak  at  all.  Miss  Willard's  love 
for  her  own  family  was  most  intense.  The  close  intimacies  in  this  circle  were 
with  her  sister,  her  mother  and  her  brother' s  wife.  The  providences  which  ended 
these  close  associations  opened  the  way  to  two  others.  One  of  these  began  in 
New  England  twenty-one  years  ago.  Through  all  these  years,  amid  many  vicis- 
situdes, it  has  never  failed  to  deepen  and  strengthen.  It  is  worthy  a  place  among 
the  few  great  friendships  of  history.  The  other  friendship  belongs  to  Old  Eng- 
land, and  is  associated  with  scenes  of  romantic  beauty.  It  united  women  of  most 
diverse  training,  but  alike  in  rare  talents  of  mind  and  one  in  their  active  sympa- 
thies for  the  fallen  and  the  oppressed.  When  we  consider  the  labors,  the  sacrifices 
and  the  sorrows  which  Miss  Willard  endured,  it  is  comforting  to  consider  the 
sources  of  light  and  joy  she  had  in  these  two  radiant  friendships.  In  both  there 
was  that  absolute  confidence,  unfailing  affection  and  utter  self-bestowal  which 
make  such  devotion  between  man  and  man,  or  woman  and  woman,  shine  with  a 
radiance  little  less  than  divine. 

The  circumference  of  Miss  Willard's  friendly  sympathy  has  been  truly  said 
to  have  included  the  human  race.  Its  center  and  source  are  to  be  found  in  Jesus 
Christ.  Her  whole  life  shows  this. 

The  greatness  of  Miss  Willard's  powers  and  the  clear  call  which  ordained 
her  to  eminent  public  leadership  often  interfered  greatly  with  the  privileges  of 
home  and  social  life.  She  frequently  expressed  her  sense  of  this  loss,  and  her 
Evanston  friends  have  sadly  missed  her  during  her  long  and  many  absences. 
But  we  could  never  doubt  the  loyalty  of  her  affection  and  we  have  never  failed 
to  love  and  honor  her.  ' '  When  I  go  home  to  Heaven, ' '  she  said  in  her  quaint 
way,  "I  wish  to  register  from  Evanston."  That,  too,  was  our  wish  for  her. 
This  was  her  home.  The  most  sacred  memories  of  her  family  life  centered  here. 
The  most  potent  forces  in  her  education  were  brought  to  bear  upon  her  here.  At 
this  altar  she  took  the  vows  she  kept  so  faithfully.  Here  she  received  her  call 
from  Heaven  and  went  forth  to  raise  the  fallen,  to  strengthen  the  weak,  to  relieve 


IN  MEMORIAM  327 

the  oppressed.  We  gave  her  to  the  country  and  to  the  world.  She  has  fought 
a  good  fight;  she  has  finished  her  course;  she  has  won  her  crown.  Her  victory 
the  world  knows.  And  the  world,  as  if  on  waves  of  honor  and  grateful  affection, 
brings  back  as  a  sacred  trust  to  this  city,  to  Rest  Cottage,  to  this  altar,  to  our 
hearts,  the  dear  form  which  was  the  temple  of  so  much  power  and  goodness  and 
love. 

A  prayer  of  benediction  by  the  pastor,  Dr.  Bristol,  closed  this 
service  in  memory  of  the  last  of  an  honored  and  beloved  house- 
hold—  a  home  circle  among  the  earliest  to  form  in  Evanston — 
and  the  classic  town  forgot  all  else  in  its  desire  to  pay  the  last  lov- 
ing tribute  of  profound  respect  to  its  most  gifted  daughter.  Many 
who  had  waited  outside  for  hours  came  in  at  the  close  to  say  fare- 
well. The  White  Ribbon  star-spangled  banner  was  draped  for 
the  last  time  over  the  casket,  as  it  was  borne  by  the  brotherly  stu- 
dents from  the  ' '  dear  home  church, "  while  fresh  tears  fell  and 
hearts  were  baptized  anew. 


At  the  cemetery  —  beautiful  Rosehill,  its  pure  white  cover- 
ing of  snow  dazzling  in  the  sunshine  —  the  receiving  vault  was 
faced  with  evergreen,  and  branches  of  the  same  emblem  of  immor- 
tal life  made  warm  and  soft  the  pathway  to  the  entrance.  Once 
more  we  looked  upon  her  face,  again  our  hearts  sought  consolation 
in  prayer,  led  by  Mrs.  Gulick,  and  we  left  our  beautiful  one  until 
the  time  of  the  singing  of  the  birds  should  come  when  mother  and 
daughter,  lovely  in  life,  were  to  rest  together  in  the  "low  green 
tent  whose  curtain  never  outward  swings." 


Those  who  were  able  to  leave  Rosehill  with  lifted  faces  were 
greeted  with  the  glory  of  the  setting  sun.  In  the  far  sky  hung  a 
rainbow;  with  us  there  had  been  no  storm,  only  the  gentle  rain 
that  had  fallen  from  sad  eyes.  Was  that  bow  of  promise  sent  to 
cheer  and  comfort  ?  Let  us  take  it  as  a  message  from  Him  and 
from  her  to  look  up,  not  down. 


On  April  ninth,   at  Graceland  cemetery,  three  miles  distant 
from  Rosehill.  Miss  Willard's  wish  in  regard  to  the  disposition  of  the 


328  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

1 '  earthly  house  of  her  tabernacle  "  was  sacredly  fulfilled.  Drawing 
near  to  them  in  confiding  frankness  of  self-revelation,  Miss  Willard 
had  told  her  friends  and  the  whole  world  in  her  autobiography  why 
she  chose  the  luminous  path  of  light  rather  than  the  dark,  slow 
road  of  the  ' '  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death, "  stating  her  personal 
convictions  on  the  subject  in  these  words: 

' '  Holding  these  opinions,  I  have  the  purpose  to  help  forward 
progressive  movements  even  in  my  latest  hours,  and  hence  hereby 
decree  that  the  earthly  mantle  which  I  shall  drop  ere  long,  when 
my  real  self  passes  onward  into  the  world  unseen,  shall  be  swiftly 
enfolded  in  flames  and  rendered  powerless  harmfully  to  affect  the 
health  of  the  living.  Let  no  friend  of  mine  say  aught  to  prevent 
the  cremation  of  my  cast-off  body.  The  fact  that  the  popular 
mind  has  not  come  to  this  decision  renders  it  all  the  more  my  duty, 
who  have  seen  the  light,  to  stand  for  it  in  death  as  I  have  sincerely 
meant  in  life  to  stand  by  the  great  cause  of  poor  oppressed  human- 
ity. There  must  be  explorers  along  all  pathways,  scouts  in  all 
armies.  This  has  been  my  '  call '  from  the  beginning,  by  nature 
and  by  nurture;  let  me  be  true  to  its  inspiriting  and  cheery  man- 
date even  unto  this  last." 

Miss  Willard  believed  in  the  sacredness  of  the  ' '  earthly  house 
of  this  tabernacle  "  as  the  ' '  temple  of  the  living  God. "  She  spent 
years  in  showing  how  human  beings  might  keep  it  so  free  from 
taint  of  drink  and  every  other  pollution  that  it  should  be  a  fit 
dwelling  for  the  divine  spirit.  She  was  ready,  for  this  end,  to 
present  her  own  frail  body  a  living  sacrifice  in  toil  and  weariness 
and  pain,  and  in  death  to  offer  it  as  a  burnt  offering  on  the  altar  of 
her  conviction  of  right.  She  felt  that  He  who  would  not  suffer 
His  Holy  One  to  see  corruption  certainly  could  not  desire  it  for 
even  the  least  of  His  little  ones,  and  that  this  mortal  might  elect 
to  ' '  put  on  immortality  "  by  the  swift  road  of  the  chariot  of  fire, 
as  well  as  by  the  damp,  dark  path  of  the  tomb,  and  strength  was 
given  for  the  carrying  out  of  the  promise  many  times  made  to  this 
heroic  soul  who  even  in  her  last  hours  remembered  the  tomorrows 
of  the  world. 


IN  MEMORIAM  329 

A  group  of  nearest  friends  and  relatives  gathered  in  the  beau- 
tiful chapel  at  Graceland.  Rev.  Dr.  Milton  S.  Terry,  of  the  Gar- 
rett  Biblical  Institute  at  Evanston,  conducted  the  brief,  impressive 
service.  He  read  from  Isaiah :  ' '  When  thou  passest  through  the 
waters,  I  will  be  with  thee;  and  through  the  rivers,  they  shall  not 
overflow  thee;  when  thou  walkest  through  the  fire,  thou  shalt  not 
be  burned;  neither  shall  the  flame  kindle  upon  thee, "and  other 
appropriate  Scripture.  Through  the  tender,  comforting  prayer  ran 
an  undertone  of  grateful  praise  that  such  a  soul  had  dwelt  among 
us  and  was  living  still  to  bless. 

The  friends  followed  the  casket  to  the  door  of  the  little  inner 
sanctuary  below  the  chapel,  whose  white  walls  gleamed  through  a 
greenery  of  palms.  "Never  before  was  this  room  so  beautiful," 
said  the  tender-hearted  official  in  charge.  ' '  Foliage  and  flowers 
were  placed  here  today  to  do  honor  to  the  greatest  woman  in  the 
world. "  Nowhere  about  the  sacred  place,  nor  in  any  of  the  prep- 
arations, was  there  one  dread  shadow  of  death. 

The  casket  was  borne  to  its  final  resting  place  through 
the  pathway  of  palms,  which  bent  lovingly  over  it.  ' '  Open  the 
door  very  gently, "  said  the  director  to  his  assistants,  as  the  casket 
was  placed  where  no  flames  touched  it,  but  where  in  the  white 
inner  chamber  through  the  long  hours  of  the  day  and  night  was 
wrought  upon  the  precious  form  within  it  the  change  that  lifted  it 
beyond  the  touch  of  decay. 

Who  can  doubt  that  through  the  solemn  midnight  and  on  to 
the  Easter  dawn  the  angels  watched  and  waited  there,  though  no 
eye  saw  the  vision  ?  Surely  in  more  than  one  heart  was  heard  a 
voice  saying,  ' '  She  is  not  here ;  she  is  risen. " 

On  Sunday  afternoon,  April  10,  amid  the  Easter  sunshine,  a 
hushed  and  reverent  company  gathered  at  the  Willard  lot  in  Rose- 
hill  cemetery.  The  grave  of  Miss  Willard's  mother  was  opened, 
the  sides  lined  with  evergreens,  the  mound  of  earth  also  hidden 
by  green  boughs.  As  the  sacred  ashes  were  literally  committed  to 
the  precious  dust  beneath  them,  they  mingled  with  white  roses, 
above  which  were  placed  sprays  of  evergreen,  sent  from  the  birth- 


330  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

places  of  Miss  Willard's  parents,  of  her  brother  and  sister,  and  of 
herself,  and  from  Forest  Home  and  Rest  Cottage ;  then  all  was  made 
radiant  with  bright  blossoms,  emblems  of  the  glorious  springtime. 
A  moss-covered  box,  fragrant  with  lilies  of  the  valley  and  pansies, 
and  which  had  held  a  precious  inner  box  of  purest  white,  was 
placed  over  the  mother's  heart.  Surrounding  the  whole  in  beauty 
and  fragrance,  were  the  floral  tributes  of  friends,  and  thus  Frances 
Willard,  that  great  woman  who  never  lost  her  childhood,  at  last 
' '  crept  in  with  mother. " 

The  white  silk  banner  which  had  draped  the  casket  nestled 
close  to  the  stone  which  bore  the  name  of  "  Saint  Courageous." 
The  soft  gray  clouds  drifting  across  the  blue  of  an  April  sky, 
seemed  to  pause,  hovering  over  that  open  grave.  High  above  it 
swung  the  bough  of  an  old  oak,  from  which  fluttered  down  a  few 
brown  and  wrinkled  leaves,  as  if  eager  to  share  the  Easter  bloom. 
A  maple,  mossy  with  bursting  buds,  and  a  soft  wind  sighing  in  the 
leaves  of  a  solemn  pine,  seemed  each  to  whisper  a  promise  to 
guard  the  sacred  spot.  Upon  the  blessed  hush  broke  the  soft 
music  of  the  hymn  so  often  sung  at  Rest  Cottage, 

' '  There  is  a  land  of  pure  delight, 
Where  saints  immortal  dwell." 

Rev.  Dr.  Waters,  pastor  of  the  Emmanuel  Methodist  Church, 
of  Evanston,  repeated  the  Twenty-third  Psalm,  and  offered  a 
heartfelt  prayer.  Then  again  the  music  rose: 

"  There  are  lonely  hearts  to  cherish, 
While  the  days  are  going  by." 

The  hymn  went  on  until 

"  Let  your  face  be  like  the  morning, 
While  the  days  are  going  by," 

floated  out  above  the  rustle  of  the  last  year's  leaves  and  the  whis- 
per of  the  pines.  And  more  than  one  bowed  face  was  lifted  with 
the  look  of  high  resolve  that  showed  the  breaking  of  the  morning 
on  the  soul. 


IN  MEMORIAM  331 

Rev.  Dr.  Terry  prefaced  the  solemn  burial  service  with  the 
following  appropriate  address: 

It  has  seemed  fitting  and  beautiful  to  select  the  holy  Easter  day  on  which  to 
discharge  the  last  office  of  affection  and  duty  to  our  honored  dead.  And  inas- 
much as  it  has  pleased  our  Heavenly  Father  to  take  to  himself  the  spirit  of  our 
beloved  sister,  we  bring  that  which  was  mortal  to  the  hallowed  spot  where  the 
loved  forms  of  her  father  and  mother  and  sister  and  brother  have  been  peacefully 
waiting  for  her  coming.  We  do  here  recall  how  she  told  us,  while  she  was 
with  us  in  her  mortal  form,  that  since  the  far  June  day  when  her  sister  Mary 
went  to  dwell  with  God,  the  world  invisible  had  been  to  her  the  only  real  world. 
Now  has  she  herself  passed  on  to  see  and  know  the  things  invisible. 

So  on  this  blessed  day  of  the  springtide,  when  the  birds  are  singing  and  the 
flowers  she  loved  are  bursting  into  bloom,  we  bring  the  sacred  treasure  of  her 
dust  and  place  it  by  the  fond  mother,  to  whom  she  was  wont  to  cling  —  not  in 
childhood  only  at  Forest  Home,  but  also  in  life's  serene  meridian,  when  she  was 
giving  all  her  strength  to  repeat  her  sister's  message  to  the  world,  and  tell  every- 
body to  be  good.  She  wandered  far,  and  her  voice  has  been  heard  by  thousands 
of  thousands  in  distant  lands;  and  now  at  last,  worn  out  with  many  toils  in  loyal 
service  to  the  best  Friend  that  woman  ever  knew,  she  hath  lain  down  to  sleep  as 
if  nestling  once  more  in  the  bosom  of  the  mother  whom  she  trusted  as  the 
guardian  angel  of  her  early  and  her  later  life. 

We  are  tearful  at  her  tomb,  but  we  comfort  one  another  with  the  thought 
that  our  Lord  Jesus  wept  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus,  where  Mary  and  Martha  were 
wont  to  go  and  weep ;  and  like  all  those  who  know  the  power  of  His  resurrection, 
we  sorrow  not  as  others  sorrow  who  have  no  hope.  ' '  For  we  know  that  if  the 
earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle  be  dissolved  we  have  a  building  from  God,  a 
house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens.  For  our  light  affliction, 
which  is  for  the  moment,  worketh  for  us  a  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of 
glory;  while  we  do  not  look  at  the  things  which  are  seen,  but  at  the  things  which 
are  not  seen ;  for  the  things  which  are  seen  are  temporal,  but  the  things  which 
are  not  seen  are  eternal." 

After  the  Gloria  Patria  and  the  benediction,  which  was  pro- 
nounced by  Rev.  Dr.  Charles  F.  Bradley,  of  the  Theological  Sem- 
inary, Evanston,  and  the  gentle  covering  of  mother  and  daughter 
in  the  soft,  warm  garment  of  friendly  earth,  the  friends  came  one 
by  one  and  spread  over  it  their  gifts  of  flowers  until  the  precious 
mound  was  one  fragrant  mantle  of  Easter  bloom.  At  its  foot  was 
laid  an  offering  of  field  daisies,  whose  white,  pure  faces  and  golden 


332  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

hearts  reminded  one  of  the  friend  now  out  of  sight.  Three  stately 
palms,  at  the  graves  of  father,  brother  and  sister,  gave  them  a 
share  in  welcoming  to  their  quiet  resting  place  the  last  dear  mem- 
ber of  the  now  unbroken  family.  Late  and  long  the  people  lin- 
gered, as  if  reluctant  to  leave  the  spot  where  this  Easter  day  their 
loved  leader  had  silently  testified  to  her  unswerving  loyalty  to  her 
own  soul's  view  of  right  and  given  her  last  great  lesson  to  the  world 
in  choosing  to  take  the  pure,  white  path  on  the  way  to  her  material 
rest  in  the  bosom  of  mother  earth.  To  her  clear  vision  there  was 
only  beauty  in  the  ideal  of  such  a  passing,  and  with  her  there  was 
only  beauty  in  the  reality. 

She  who  now  ' '  wears  the  light  as  a  garment "  still  leads  and 
loves  us.  Richly  has  she  earned  the  joy  upon  which  she  has 
entered  as  she  speeds  on  her  errands  of  love  unfettered  by  the  gar- 
ment of  flesh.  « '  The  continent  of  immortality  "  is  that  insatiable 
spirit's  only  fitting  home. 

She  had  often  said  ' '  When  I  pass  onward  to  the  world  invisi- 
ble please  do  not  say,  '  she  is  dead, '  but  rather  remember  that  I 
have  entered  upon  the  activities  that  are  not  succeeded  by  weari- 
ness." Gazing  up  steadfastly  into  the  heavens,  longing  to  follow 
her  into  the  " sweet,  the  strange  Beyond,"  we  hear  her  beloved 
voice  cheering  us  on :  ' '  Protect  the  Home !  Hold  the  Light  up 
Higher,  Higher!" 

' ' '  Help  your  fallen  brother  rise 
While  the  days  are  going  by.'  ' 

Yes,  poor  weak  mortals  that  we  are,  our  holiest  endeavors  shall  be 
given  to  her  cherished  plans  while  life  shall  last:  then  and  then 
only  shall  we  in  some  little  measure  be  worthy  to  see  her  face 
again. 

With  a  pean  of  praise  for  the  Christlike  life  of  this  High 
Priestess  of  the  Home,  this  toiler  for  tempted  Humanity,  this 
great-hearted,  unselfish,  transcendent  friend,  this  glorified  saint  of 
God,  let  us  reverently  read  her  last  ' '  Confession  of  Faith, "  a  mes- 
sage she  gave  us  in  the  full  belief  that  she  was  about  to  enter  the 
unseen  world  and  receive  her  crown  of  Life  Everlasting: 


IN  MEMORIAM  333 

' '  Concerning  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  I  retain  to  this  hour  the 
teaching  of  my  father  and  mother,  illuminated  and  enforced  by 
their  high  character  and  noble  lives.  The  chapter  in  my  autobiog- 
raphy entitled  '  God  and  My  Heart, '  is  as  complete  a  presentation 
of  what  I  should  like  to  have  remembered  by  any  who  care  for  me 
as  I  have  ever  given.  My  great  love  for  the  natural  sciences, 
acceptance  of  evolution  as  a  working  hypothesis  of  the  universe, 
and  favorable  view  of  the  new  criticism,  do  not  in  the  least  disturb 
me  in  my  early  faith.  I  consider  that  men  have  mingled  their 
views  with  the  truth  of  God,  they  have  so  incrusted  the  temple 
of  Christ's  Gospel  that  it  will  take  generations  to  restore  it  to  its 
pristine  simplicity  and  purity.  It  seems  to  me  this  age  is  one  that 
should  have  sounded  in  its  ears,  more  potently  than  any  other  voice, 
that  splendid  declaration,  '  In  vain  they  do  worship  me,  teaching 
for  doctrines  the  commandments  of  men ';  and  this,  '  Why  call  ye 
me,  Lord,  Lord,  and  do  not  the  things  which  I  say  ? ' 

' '  To  me  there  are  but  five  words  in  the  language :  God,  Duty, 
Love,  Humanity  and  Immortality.  I  believe  in  the  reign  of  the 
common  people;  that  the  earth  is  theirs,  and  everything  in  it 
belongs  to  them;  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  going  to  be  here; 
that  through  the  Gospel  there  is  yet  to  come  a  warmer  glow  of  love 
on  the  part  of  each  human  being  for  every  other  than  we  and  the 
icicles  that  we  resemble  can  possibly  imagine.  I  believe  that  there 
will  be  no  private  property,  no  private  opportunities  of  education 
and  culture,  but  that  each  human  being  will  reach  a  plane  so  high 
that  his  most  devoted  desire  will  be  to  have  every  other  human 
being  enjoy  to  the  utmost  those  opportunities  of  comfort,  develop- 
ment and  cultivation  that  will  make  of  him  the  utmost  that  can  be 
made.  Until  this  is  the  spontaneous  desire  and  the  supreme  pur- 
pose of  each  of  us  we  are  only  modified  savages,  but  I  believe  that 
the  light  of  the  truth  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ 

' '  Shall  shine  more  and  more, 
'Till  its  glory  like  noontide  shall  be!" 


CHAPTER   II 
CHARACTER   STUDIES  — TRIBUTES 


FRANCES    E.    WILLARD 

BY 

LADY  HENRY  SOMERSET 

ONG  after  the  Temperance  Reform  has  become  a  matter 
of  past  history,  long  after  the  "Woman  Question"  has 
brought  about  the  equality  of  men  and  women,  political, 
social,  and  financial,  the  name  of  Frances  Willard  will  be  remem- 
bered, not  only  as  one  who  led  a  great  movement,  but  as  one  who 
gave  her  life,  her  talent,  her  enthusiasm,  to  make  the  world  wider 
for  women  and  better  for  humanity. 

Such  a  record  will  be  associated  with  no  particular  form  of 
philanthropy,  but  will  stand  among  the  landmarks  of  the  ages  that 
point  the  progress  of  the  world  along  the  upward  way.  Remarka- 
ble as  a  speaker,  excellent  as  a  writer,  with  a  genius  for  organiza- 
tion, perhaps  Miss  Willard's  rarest  gift  is  the  power  of  inspiring 
others  with  a  belief  in  what  they  can  accomplish.  Many  a  speaker 
has  attained  oratorical  fame  and  many  a  philanthropist  has  accom- 
plished wonderful  ends  by  devotion  and  hard  work,  but  to  few  has 
it  been  given  so  to  arouse  women  on  every  hand  that  on  all  sides 
captains  have  been  called,  companies  have  been  enlisted,  armies 
organized,  and  the  most  timid,  undeveloped,  and  apparently  com- 
monplace individuals  have  been  transformed,  under  the  magic 
power  of  her  enthusiasm,  into  untiring  workers  and  gifted  speakers. 
She  possessed  in  a  rare  degree  the  quality  of  making  others  believe 

334 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  335 

that  they  are  capable,  for  the  simple  reason  that  she  believed  it 
herself.  She  saw  the  germs  of  a  possibility  where,  to  the  ordinary 
eye,  there  is  nothing  but  the  arid  and  commonplace,  but  under  the 
sun  of  her  sympathy  this  germ  grew  into  a  very  harvest  of  accom- 
plishment. There  are  women  in  America  arid  England  who  have 
probably  brought  the  question  of  the  possibilities  for  women  as 
clearly  before  the  public  mind  as  Frances  Willard,  but  to  none 
belonged  the  honor  so  much  as  to  her  of  having  influenced  the 
masses  of  the  home  women.  It  is  comparatively  easy  to  convince 
a  thinking  few  of  the  logical  position  which  the  advocates  for 
women's  liberty  bring  forward;  it  is  extraordinarily  difficult  to 
penetrate  the  walls  of  prejudice  which  have  surrounded  the  aver- 
age woman,  which  has  kept  her  a  patient  prisoner  under  the 
dominion  of  man  in  Church,  in  home,  and  in  State,  and  which  has 
been  reinforced  by  the  misquotations  and  misunderstandings  of 
religious  teaching,  and  cemented  by  the  traditions  which  have  been 
handed  down  for  centuries;  but  when  the  history  of  these  times 
comes  to  be  written  it  will  be  found  that  this  is  actually  what 
Frances  Willard  has  accomplished.  It  has  not  only  been  carried 
out  by  the  infinite  patience,  iron  determination,  and  extraordinary 
personal  sympathy  of  the  woman  herself,  who,  having  devoted 
herself  to  a  line  of  work,  has  gone  forward  as  unswervingly  as  the 
arrow  flies  from  the  bow,  but  difficulties  did  not  daunt  her,  sneers 
did  not  sap  her  enthusiasm,  fatigue  and  hardship  did  not  hold  her 
back. 

Miss  Willard  has  been  depicted  so  often  in  pen  and  pencil, 
in  the  mezzotint  of  the  critic  and  the  full  coloring  of  the  admirer, 
that  it  is  difficult  to  present  an  original  view  of  such  a  model; 
but,  instead  of  ' '  beginning  at  the  beginning, "  as  the  children 
say,  I  propose  to  present  Frances  Willard  as  she  appeared  to 
me,  and,  looking  down  the  avenue  of  time,  trace  that  distant 
horizon  which  has  caused  her  to  be  all  that  she  is  to  the  world  of 
philanthropy  and  reform. 

In  October,  1891,  I  stood  for  the  first  time  on  the  platform 
of  the  railway  station  in  the  ' '  classic  town  "  of  Evanston.  I  had 


336  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

only  landed  in  America  a  few  weeks,  but  my  steps  were  naturally 
bent  to  the  mecca  of  White-Ribboners.  It  was  a  sunny  autumn 
day;  the  rare  tints  of  ruby  and  gold  that  gleam  as  summer's 
funeral  torches  in  the  glad  New  World  were  flaming  in  brilliant 
beauty  along  the  shady  streets  of  that  lovely  spot  on  the  shores  of 
Lake  Michigan. 

Like  all  temperance  women,  good  and  true,  I  had  placed  Miss 
Willard's  image  in  the  inmost  shrine  where  I  pay  loyal  devotion  to 
those  rare  spirits  who  lead  the  ranks  of  reform;  and  yet,  as  the 
train  glided  toward  Evans  ton,  I  felt  that  our  idols  seem  made  but 
to  be  shattered,  and  this  one  also  might  possibly  shortly  be  dashed 
violently  to  the  ground.  On  the  platform  she  awaited  my  coming — 
a  delicate,  fragile  figure  in  a  pretty  blue  dress,  her  small  hand 
shading  her  eyes  as  she  looked  about  attentively  seeking  her  guest ; 
and  as  she  came  toward  me  I  saw  a  face  so  kind  and  frank  that  it 
seemed  as  though  the  peaceful  simplicity  of  childhood  had  some- 
how remained  unruffled  by  the  chilling  blasts  of  life.  Extending 
her  hand,  she  greeted  me,  not  as  a  stranger,  but  as  a  sister  beloved, 
and  as  one  to  whom  her  soul  was  linked  by  that  strong  fellowship 
and  suffering  that  binds  us  in  our  ' '  peaceful  war, "  a  holy  comrade- 
ship in  the  common  cause  for  the  uplift  of  humanity.  From  that 
hour  I  have  felt  that  we  were  friends  —  friends  not  alone  to  joy  in 
each  other's  companionship,  but  in  that  truer  sense  that  binds  souls, 
only  to  form  a  new  link  in  the  lengthening  chain  of  love  and  loy- 
alty that  holds  humanity  to  God. 

A  few  minutes  later  I  was  in  Rest  Cottage,  as  it  was  then  in  its 
completeness;  for  since  that  day  the  sun  has  set  on  that  great  life 
that  was  the  center  of  the  home  circle.  Mrs.  Willard  stood  there 
then  in  the  doorway  to  meet  me,  erect  and  queenly  still,  in  spite 
of  her  eighty-seven  years  !  She  greeted  me  with  that  gentle 
kindness  that  showed  at  once  her  innate  refined  and  quiet  dignity; 
and  as  we  sat  round  the  supper  table  that  night,  amid  the  dainty, 
bright,  yet  simple  surroundings  of  that  charming  home,  and,  later, 
gathered  round  the  open  hearth  in  Miss  Willard's  ' '  den, "  or  walked 
next  day  on  the  pretty  lawn  with  its  trees  and  flowers,  grape  arbor, 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  337 

• 

and  rustic  dovecote,  I  felt  that  in  all  my  wanderings  up  and  down 
the  world,  I  had  never  found  a  more  harmonious  home  —  a  spot 
which  seemed  to  combine  the  breezy  atmosphere  wafted  from  the 
great  wide  world  with  the  fragrant  family  life  which  remained 
unruffled  in  its  holy  calm. 

A  few  days  later  I  went  to  Boston  to  attend  the  World's  and 
National  Conventions  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union.  It  was  the  most  remarkable  gathering  I  ever  witnessed. 

During  the  convention  the  crowds  assembled  were  so  immense 
that  the  great  hall  could  not  accommodate  them.  Six  overflow 
meetings  were  held  daily  in  different  churches.  Nothing  is  more 
significant  than  the  fact  that  on  the  Sundays  during  these  memor- 
able days  sixty  pulpits  were  occupied  in  the  city  and  suburban 
churches  by  women.  The  convention  itself  was  a  sight  never  to 
be  forgotten.  Philanthropic  work  of  every  description  was  repre- 
sented, notably  evangelistic,  educational,  preventive,  and  reform  in 
all  its  branches  —  religious,  legal  and  social  —  classified  into  forty 
departments.  The  consecrated  power  of  America's  womanhood 
had  united  to  redeem  the  country  and  the  home. 

On  the  crowded  platform  there  stood  the  slender  figure  of  the 
woman  who  led  that  convention  with  a  master  hand.  We  are  told 
that  when  Sir  Michael  Costa,  the  greatest  conductor  we  have  ever 
known,  wielded  the  baton  and  gave  the  signal  for  the  mighty 
orchestra  to  commence,  as  the  great  harmony  filled  the  air  with  a 
burst  of  melodious  sound,  the  violins  leading  in  plaintive  refrain, 
supported  by  the  volume  of  a  hundred  instruments,  on  a  sudden 
the  great  master  paused,  and  looking  up,  said,  "Where  is  the 
piccolo  ?  "  The  magic  culture  of  his  sensitive  ear  missed  that  one 
small  sound  in  the  harmonious  whole.  Miss  Willard,  with  the 
same  infinitely  fine  perception,  knew  each  note  that  should  be 
struck,  each  tone  that  should  vibrate  in  the  great  White  Ribbon 
chorus.  Her  marvelous  power  of  calling  forth  the  best  arose 
perhaps  chiefly  from  the  fact  that  she  expected  the  best,  and  each 
one  wished  to  meet  the  standard  by  which  she  was  measured  by 
her  leader. 


338  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

* 

Such  a  gathering  of  women,  such  perfect  command  of  the 
situation,  are  not  mere  chances.  It  is  not  often  that  rare  talent  is 
given  to  one  woman  by  which  she  can  bring  so  much  to  pass. 
Nothing  happens  in  this  world ;  ' '  it  is  the  toil  of  a  life  woven  into  the 
warp  of  womanhood, "  was  the  thought  that  crossed  my  mind  as  I 
watched  this  scene ;  and  as  I  noted  the  delicate  lines  that  had  been 
drawn  by  the  chisel  of  time  on  the  pale  face  of  the  President,  I 
knew  that  she  was  among  those  who  had  laid  down  her  life  to  find 
it  again  in  the  women  whom  she  was  creating  for  the  twentieth 
century  and  the  glad  good  times  she  was  helping  to  bring  to  the 
world. 

Capacity  for  work,  untiring  and  unremitting,  is  one  of  the 
great  characteristics  which  the  close  friendship  of  these  years  has 
revealed;  and,  save  when  sleeping,  I  have  never  seen  her  idle. 
She  knew  no  days  of  leisure;  on  the  cars,  out  walking  or  driving, 
her  hand  was  always  busy  making  notes,  or  her  brain  planning, 
thinking,  devising  some  new  method  to  help  forward  the  welfare  of 
all  the  various  enterprises  with  which  she  was  connected. 

The  secret  of  her  success  has  perhaps  lain  in  this  —  that  she 
set  herself  toward  her  aim,  and  nothing  would  tempt  her  from  that 
goal.  The  most  glorious  mountain  scenery  would  not  deter  her 
from  accomplishing  the  allotted  task  she  had  in  mind.  She  wrote 
a  convention  address  with  her  back  to  the  White  Mountains, 
determined  to  see  nothing  but  her  work.  On  the  Hudson,  one 
glorious  day,  sooner  than  not  accomplish  her  task  when  all  were 
rejoicing  in  the  radiant  beauty  of  that  most  wonderful  scene, 
Frances  Willard  sat  below  because  she  ' '  had  work  to  do "  for  a 
coming  Chautauqua  meeting.  She  was  among  those  who  accom- 
plish because  she  understood  how  to  deny  herself,  and  it  was  this 
constant  habit  that  molded  her  mind  and  made  her  work  ring  true. 

During  these  past  years  this  indomitable  energy  has  been 
turned  to  pioneer  work,  and  Miss  Willard,  having  set  herself  the 
herculean  task,  or  ' '  stint, "  as  she  called  it,  in  remembrance  of  the 
old  farm  days,  of  visiting  every  city  of  10,000  inhabitants,  and 
generally  those  that  had  but  5,000,  accomplished  in  a  few  years  a 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  339 

work  that  it  would  have  taken  many  women  a  lifetime  to  build  up. 
During  those  long  days  of  travel  her  faithful  and  devoted  com- 
panion, Anna  Gordon,  has  told  me  of  the  ceaseless  letters,  articles, 
leaflets,  that  flew  from  her  busy  hand.  Often  she  arrived  after  a 
weary  day's  journey  only  in  time  to  go  to  the  platform  and  face 
that  great  pitiless  public  which,  in  spite  of  its  kindness  and  good 
nature,  so  little  understands  the  vitality  that  is  poured  out  when 
the  speaker  gives  up  himself  and  lays  his  best  at  its  feet.  It 
requires  an  energy  as  superabundant  as  Miss  Willard's  to  carry  on 
the  multiplicity  of  interests  that  surrounded  her  life,  the  details  of 
organization  and  the  responsibility  of  that  vast  association  that  has 
grown  under  her  hand.  "You  have  a  fatal  versatility,"  said  a 
friend  to  her;  and,  with  a  little  sad  smile,  she  often  repeated  the 
remark,  for  with  her  nature  it  has  required  a  real  consecration  to 
consent  so  far  to  sacrifice  her  ambition  as  to  be  obliged  to  limit  her 
powers  to  do  the  thing  in  hand  less  well  than  it  could  be  accom- 
plished, because  it  was  to  the  interest  of  the  work  to  limit  the  time 
allotted  to  any  one  department. 

As  a  speaker  Miss  Willard  was  in  her  way  unique,  with  a  won- 
derful combination  of  eloquence,  pathos,  and  humor,  a  sense  of 
proportion  and  an  understanding  of  her  audience  that  made  her 
utterance  always  harmonious  with  her  requirements.  It  is  proba- 
bly this  power  of  ' '  rapport "  with  other  souls  that  was  her  greatest 
talent  —  the  quick  understanding  that  always  seizes  the  perspective 
of  every  circumstance  from  another's  angle  of  vision,  and  the 
intense  humanness  of  the  woman.  The  most  difficult  crises  have 
been  often  averted  by  the  gentle  touch  and  the  whispered  explana- 
tion, "See  here,  Honey!  "  and  who  could  fail  to  feel  that  ill-humor, 
bitterness  and  carping  must  be  laid  aside,  and  that  larger-souled 
charity  reign  which  seemed  to  radiate  from  the  heart  of  the  Presi- 
dent till  the  darkest  corners  lurking  in  the  human  mind  were 
touched  by  its  warmth  and  genial  glow!  "She  is  ambitious "  was 
the  worst  condemnation  of  her  enemies,  but  surely  if  there  was  a 
noble,  a  pure,  a  true  ambition  it  was  that  of  Frances  Willard.  For 
she,  forsaking  a  career  as  brilliant  as  any  that  ever  opened  to  a 


340  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

young  woman,  deliberately  adopted  a  vocation  that  promised  not 
one  penny  of  money,  consecrated  herself  to  the  most  unpopular 
reform  of  her  time,  and  devoted  her  best  years  to  the  most  arduous 
and  often  apparently  thankless  tasks. 

An  army  of  women  the  world  over  can  testify  to  the  unselfish 
interest  with  which  she  ever  placed  those  who  worked  by  her  side 
in  positions  of  prominence,  and  labored  for  their  advancement  with 
greater  eagerness  than  she  ever  sought  her  own. 

Among  those  characteristics  which  have  often  struck  me  I 
may  mention  her  utter  absence  of  self-assertion.  I  have  sometimes 
smiled  when  I  have  listened  to  conversations  between  her  and 
younger  workers.  They  would  tell  her  all  they  had  done,  their 
opinion  on  questions  to  the  consideration  of  which  she  had  given 
her  life,  and  no  word  would  ever  escape  her  either  of  all  she  had 
accomplished  or  all  she  knew  upon  the  subject.  The  gentle  ques- 
tion would  draw  on  the  eager  talker,  who  too  often  took  most  liter- 
ally the  aphorism  that  it  "is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive. " 

A  great  surrender  is  the  price  paid  for  all  real  success.  Frances 
Willard  was  early  called  to  choose  between  the  pleasant  path  of 
culture  and  self-advancement  and  the  dusty  highway  of  a  reformer. 
In  1871  she  was  elected  the  first  President  of  the  Woman's  College 
in  Evanston.  Her  great  capacity  for  leadership  soon  showed  itself, 
and  the  extraordinary  influence  she  obtained  over  the  minds  of  her 
pupils  was  manifest  in  that  development  of  individual  character 
which  has  been  her  constant  care.  The  question  that  was  always 
kept  before  her  girls  was  not,  ' '  What  are  you  going  to  be  in  the 
world?"  but  "What  are  you  going  to  do?"  So  that  after  six 
months  under  her  tuition  each  of  her  scholars  had  a  definite  idea 
of  a  lifework. 

Like  many  other  speakers,  her  call  to  address  large  audiences 
came  to  her  as  by  an  accident  rather  than  by  design. 

During  the  years  1868  to  1870  Miss  Willard  had  enjoyed  rare 
opportunities  for  travel  in  Europe  and  in  the  East,  and  at  a  woman's 
missionary  meeting  in  Chicago  she  had  spoken  of  her  visions  of  a 
new  chivalry  —  the  modern  crusade  which  the  women  of  her  coun- 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  341 

try  should  enter  upon,  the  chivalry  of  justice;  the  justice  that  gives 
to  woman  a  fair  chance  to  be  all  that  God  meant  her.  The  next 
day  a  wealthy,  well-known  Methodist  called  on  her,  and  entreated 
her  to  use  the  remarkable  gift  she  undoubtedly  possessed,  and  to 
speak  out  to  the  world  all  that  God  had  put  into  her  heart.  She 
appealed  to  her  mother  for  advice,  and  with  characteristic  courage 
that  large-hearted  woman  answered:  "My  child,  enter  every  open 
door. " 

And  so  it  came  about  that  Miss  Willard  addressed  a  great 
audience  in  Chicago,  and  the  next  day  the  city  papers  were  filled 
with  columns  about  the  eloquence  of  this  young  woman.  In  1874 
a  very  Pentecost  of  God  swept  over  the  continent,  and  Miss  Wil- 
lard caught  the  first  sound  of  that  new  language  of  reform  which 
had  been  given  to  the  women  who  had  been  called  to  join  the  ranks 
of  the  crusade  against  the  liquor  traffic.  In  that  year  she  resolved 
to  resign  her  post  as  president  of  the  college.  After  the  union  of 
the  Women's  College  with  the  University  at  Evanston  it  had  become 
impossible  for  Miss  Willard  to  carry  on  her  work  according  to  the 
principles  she  had  laid  down;  and,  sooner  than  abandon  the  meth- 
ods she  believed  to  be  right,  she  gave  up  the  position  she  had 
delighted  to  fill.  She  suffered  acutely  in  arriving  at  this  decision, 
and  it  seemed  to  her,  on  leaving  her  cherished  pupils  and  the  insti- 
tution she  loved  so  dearly,  as  though  her  lifework  was  broken 
almost  before  it  was  begun.  But  the  scholars  whom  God  trains 
learn  hard  tasks  to  fit  themselves  for  the  work  that  He  has  pre- 
pared, and  Miss  Willard,  in  the  pause  that  followed  this  great 
decision,  clearly  heard  the  call  which  was  to  her  the  opening  of  a 
new  existence.  The  woman  question  had  long  been  to  her  of  vital 
interest,  because  it  formed  part  of  the  great  human  question.  She 
saw  that  until  woman  participated  in  purifying  political  life  the  cor- 
ruptions which  everywhere  undermine  the  real  interests  of  the 
nation  could  not  be  swept  away.  Years  before  this  thought  had 
matured  she  had  anticipated  the  movement  that  swept  over  New 
York  in  1874-75,  and  on  looking  back  over  her  annual  addresses 
we  find  page  after  page  devoted  to  the  thought  that  the  political 


342  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

and  municipal  life  of  America  must  be  brought  into  harmony  with 
the  religious  and  ethical  teachings  of  that  great  country.  There  are 
those  who,  even  in  these  days,  condemn  women  for  taking  any 
part  in  public  questions;  but  to  Miss  Willard  politics  was  part  of 
her  religion,  for  she  believed  the  government  of  the  country  to  be 
an  integral  part  of  the  service  demanded  by  God  from  every  loyal 
soul.  It  was  inconceivable  to  her  mind  that  women  should  forever 
occupy  the  position  of  ambulance  nurses  in  life's  great  army,  with- 
out pausing  to  ask  themselves  why  the  sick  and  the  wounded  were 
strewn  around  them,  and  what  was  the  real  question  at  issue  in 
dealing  with  the  evils  of  the  legalized  liquor  traffic.  Almost  every 
reformer  is  ahead  of  his  age,  and  the  message  that  he  has  brought 
to  the  world  has  been  one  of  prophecy.  It  is  only,  probably,  when 
the  goal  of  life  for  him  has  been  reached  that  his  prediction  has 
passed  into  fact,  and  men  and  women  forget  that  the  age  ever 
existed  when  such  teaching  called  forth  the  severest  criticism  of 
the  so-called  Christian  world.  There  must  unquestionably  be  a 
movement  of  reform  in  the  political  and  municipal  life  of  the  great 
free  country  across  the  Atlantic,  and  when  that  history  comes  to 
be  written  the  name  of  Frances  Willard  and  the  brave  women  who 
stood  around  her  will  be  indissolubly  linked  with  the  crisis  which 
made  for  the  larger  liberty  of  the  land  they  loved. 

In  1878,  Miss  Willard  definitely  entered  the  temperance  ranks 
and  was  made  President  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  in  Illinois.  The  acceptance  of  this  office  was,  however, 
coincident  with  a  time  of  severe  struggle  for  this  ardent  soul.  She 
addressed  at  this  period  great  gatherings  of  men  in  Chicago  at 
midday,  composed  principally  of  the  denizens  of  the  saloon,  the 
unemployed,  and  all  the  flotsam  and  jetsam  of  the  great  city. 
' '  I  was  glad  often  to  think, "  said  Miss  Willard,  * '  when  I  looked  at 
their  pinched  faces,  that  I,  too,  knew  what  it  was  to  be  hungry. " 
She  had  given  up  a  remunerative  position  in  order  to  ' '  cast  her 
bread  upon  the  waters,"  and  as  sometimes  happens,  it  did  not 
seem  at  that  time  as  if  she  would  find  it  even  after  many  days. 
Her  mother  shared  her  struggle  nobly,  and  together  they  fought 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  343 

the  grim  want  that  seemed  likely  to  invade  their  little  home.  By 
the  kindness  of  friends  the  bare  necessaries  of  life  were  provided 
for  her,  in  order  to  enable  her  to  continue  her  work,  and  by  degrees, 
when  the  fame  of  her  lectures  began  to  spread,  she  was  enabled  by 
her  speaking  to  earn  a  subsistence  for  herself  and  the  mother 
whom  the  women  of  the  White  Ribbon  Army  have  loved  to  call 
Saint  Courageous. 

In  1879,  Miss  Willard  was  elected  President  of  the  National 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union;  and  in  1881,  accompanied 
by  Miss  Gordon,  she  made  the  tour  of  all  the  Southern  States,  and 
it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  her  extraordinary  tact  enabled  her  to 
speak  along  the  most  advanced  lines  without  offending  any  of  the 
conservative  Southern  women.  There  is,  however,  little  doubt  that 
her  work  accomplished  more  than  this.  As  a  Northerner  going  to 
the  South  so  soon  after  the  terrible  conflict  had  rent  the  nation,  she 
was  one  of  the  first  to  take  the  olive  branch  and  bring  home  the 
message  that  ' '  all  ye  are  brethren  "  in  that  greater  struggle  for  the 
union  of  souls  against  the  enemies  of  mankind. 

From  that  time  onward  work  thickened  round  her.  First  it 
was  the  Purity  Department  that  engaged  her  attention,  when  the 
nation  was  aroused  by  a  cry  that  came  from  across  the  water,  and 
Miss  Willard  dared  prejudice  in  order  to  stand  for  women  oppressed 
and  downtrodden.  Probably  the  greatest  crucifixion  of  her  life 
came  to  her  when  she  felt  that  she  must  leave  the  Republican 
party,  in  which  she  had  been  reared  and  to  which  her  father  had 
been  a  stanch  adherent,  and  throw  in  her  lot  with  a  political 
faction  that  took  a  decisive  ground  against  the  liquor  traffic. 
Those  are  days  the  bitterness  of  which  it  would  be  difficult  to 
gauge;  for  there  is  nothing  so  hard  to  bear  as  the  criticism  of 
friends  beloved  and  of  comrades  in  a  good  cause. 

Miss  Willard  was,  since  1892,  editor-in-chief  of  The  Union 
Signal,  the  official  organ  of  the  World's  and  the  National  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Unions,  and  to  her  belonged  the  honor  of 
having  dbnceived  the  first  really  great  international  scheme  that  was 
to  bind  wVnen  the  world  over.  Not^ontent  only  with  carrying  out 


344  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

her  plans  in  her  own  country,  her  great  soul  reached  out  to  the  ideal 
of  uniting  the  English-speaking  nations  of  the  world,  and,  indeed, 
women  the  world  over,  by  one  strong  link,  under  the  banner  on 
which  is  inscribed  the  battle-cry  of  home  protection.  One  by  one 
she  sent  forth  women  to  all  parts  of  the  world,  apparently  helpless, 
moneyless  and  friendless;  but  the  promise  that  "according  to  your 
faith  be  it  unto  you, "  has  been  wonderfully  fulfilled  in  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union,  and  as  each  went  out  she  gathered 
around  her  in  every  part  of  the  globe  groups  of  women  who  have 
remained  loyal  and  devoted,  until  now  the  international  organiza- 
tion is  a  fact  and  not  a  dream.  Perhaps  nothing  could  speak  more 
eloquently  of  the  culmination  of  this  work  than  the  magnificent 
demonstration  held  in  the  Albert  Hall,  when  the  fifty  countries  in 
which  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  exists  were  rep- 
resented—  "a  great  human  mosaic,"  as  Canon  Wilberforce  elo- 
quently described  it. 

Her  visit  to  England  was  the  occasion  of  a  magnificent  recog- 
nition of  her  powers.  "  It  is  the  finest  speech  I  ever  heard,"  was 
the  verdict  of  the  leader  of  the  United  Kingdom  Alliance,  after  her 
great  address  in  the  Free  Trade  Hall,  Manchester;  and  probably 
no  man  or  woman  has  in  our  generation  received  from  the  philan- 
thropists of  this  country  a  more  generous  ovation  than  was  accorded 
to  her  in  Exeter  Hall  when  first  she  came  to  these  shores.  ' '  The 
best-loved  woman  in  the  United  States, "  is  the  saying  that  I  have 
most  often  heard  applied  to  her  in  her  own  country.  But  it  would 
be  impossible  to  know  her  and  to  conceive  for  a  moment  that  any 
adulation  or  admiration  could  spoil  the  independence  of  her  char- 
acter. Of  Puritan  ancestry,  tracing  her  descent  from  sturdy  yeo- 
men of  a  little  village  in  Kent,  where,  in  the  crabbed  handwriting 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  stands  a  record  of  her  ancestors'  births, 
deaths  and  marriages,  Miss  Willard  has  inherited  from  her  New 
England  mother  and  her  worthy  father  that  fearlessness  and  back- 
bone that  enabled  the  pioneers  to  found  the  great  nation  of  which 
Americans  are  so  justly  proud.  Brought  up  on  a  farm  in  Wiscon- 
sin, Miss  Willard  seems  to  have  retained  all  through  her  life  the 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  345 

wholesome,  breezy  atmosphere  of  those  early  days,  when  she  and 
her  sister  scampered  like  young  colts  over  the  prairie,  and  yet 
conned  their  books  and  listened  to  their  mother's  beautiful  rendering 
of  the  finest  gems  of  literature  by  the  old  farm  fireside.  I  have 
never  heard  of  a  single  human  being  who,  having  admired  Frances 
Willard  on  the  platform  or  in  her  public  work,  was  disappointed  in 
her  when  he  came  to  know  her  in  her  home;  and  this,  I  think,  is 
the  highest  testimony  that  can  be  given  to  any  public  life.  She 
brings  to  her  work  and  to  all  her  concepts  of  reform  the  winged 
spirit  that  must  always  fly  above  the  ordinary  level  of  the  world's 
daily  round;  a  soul  that  is  ever  looking  upward,  and  that  seems  to 
expand  in  the  conscious  presence  of  the  Spirit  that  guides  her  life 
and  meets  her  aspirations.  She  looks  upon  questions  of  theology 
and  reform  with  a  wideness  of  vision  that  enables  her  to  embrace 
the  whole  group  of  humanity,  and  yet  she  does  not  lose  sight  of  the 
great  horizon  from  which  ' '  the  dayspring  from  on  high  hath  vis- 
ited her. " 

The  temperance  cause,  in  spite  of  the  gigantic  strides  it  has 
made  of  late  years  toward  success,  is  still  relegated  to  the  shadowy 
land  of  unpopular  and  supposedly  impracticable  and  visionary 
reform.  The  time,  however,  is  at  hand  when  it  shall  rise  phoenix- 
like  and  triumphant,  and  the  men  and  women  of  the  future  will 
look  back  over  the  pages  of  history  where,  written  in  golden  letters, 
shall  stand  the  names  of  the  true  patriots  of  this  age,  and  none  will 
be  more  clearly  traced  thereon  than  that  of  Frances  Willard. 


FRANCES   E.  WILLARD  AS  AN   ORATOR 
REV.  FRANK  W.  GUNSAULUS,  D.D. 

We  are  constantly  told  that  the  art  and  practice  of  oratory 
are  declining,  and  that  the  triumphs  of  eloquence  which  have 
marked  the  history  of  earlier  times  have  not  been  repeated  in 
recent  years.  It  is  an  interesting  fact,  in  the  presence  of  such  a 
misstatement,  that  Frances  E.  Willard's  career  would  have  been 


346  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

fragmentary  and  unproductive  of  much  of  its  fairest  fruitage,  if,  in 
addition  to  her  large  gifts  of  an  administrative  order,  she  had  not 
possessed  and  exercised  that  congeries  of  varied  and  often  dis- 
similar powers  which  are  the  prerequisites  of  true  eloquence.  If 
theatrical  display  and  violence  of  enunciation,  even  though  it  be 
applauded  by  a  throng  of  people  or  combined  with  the  fortuitous 
enthusiasm  of  a  great  occasion,  be  called  oratory,  then  surely  this 
woman  was  not  an  orator.  If  ornament  of  expression  must  race 
with  volubility  of  utterance  in  order  that  a  speaker  may  produce 
effective  speech,  if  brilliancy  of  imagery  and  simulated  emotion 
must  be  added  to  these  to  win  the  triumph  in  such  a  great  name 
as  eloquence,  then,  indeed,  Frances  E.  Willard  secured  not  a 
single  trophy  for  herself  in  this  field,  nor  is  she  to  be  named  among 
women  conspicuous  for  eloquence.  But  if  a  great  heart,  fed  by 
fiery  streams  from  on  high,  glowing  and  molten  with  burning  love 
for  humanity,  issuing  forth  its  indignant  denunciation  of  evil,  pour- 
ing out  incessant  streams  of  argument  against  well-dressed  error 
and  fashionable  wrong,  kindling  with  lightning-like  heat  thousands 
of  fellow-beings  until  they  also  flash  to  holy  wrath  which  scathes 
the  slayer  and  illumines  the  slain  —  if  lifting  millions  of  human 
beings  from  out  the  noise  and  dullness  of  unreason  into  the  serene 
radiance  of  reason,  so  that  they  are  willing  to  obey  the  highest 
ideals  and  to  serve  at  any  cost  the  noblest  demands  of  humanity 
and  God  —  if  these  be  of  the  characteristics  or  results  of  elo- 
quence, then,  without  doubt,  Frances  Willard  must  be  considered 
one  of  the  most  eloquent  of  the  orators  of  our  time.  She  has  told 
us,  in  her  own  way,  of  her  first  public  address : 

' '  One  day  when  I  was  doing  housework  at  Rest  Cottage,  the 
winter  my  mother,  my  friend  Kate  and  I  decided  to  have  no 
stranger  intermeddle  with  our  lot,  either  in  kitchen  or  parlor,  a 
gray-haired  gentleman,  the  scrupulously  elegant  style  of  whose 
toilet  made  an  impression  even  upon  one  who  gives  but  little 
attention  to  such  subjects,  rang  our  doorbell  and  inquired  if  this 
was  the  home  of  Frances  E.  Willard.  Being  affirmatively  answered 
he  entered,  with  much  mingled  dignity  and  urbanity,  and  addressed 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  347 

his  remarks  about  equally  to  my  mother  and  myself  as  we  were  all 
seated  in  the  little  south  parlor.  He  discoursed  somewhat  on  this 
wise:  'I  have  been  present  at  several  of  the  meetings  of  the 
Women's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  before  which  you  have  been 
speaking  within  the  last  few  weeks  concerning  your  observations  in 
Egypt  and  the  Holy  Land.  It  seems  to  me  you  have  the  art  of 
putting  things,  the  self-possession,  and  many  other  of  the  necessary 
requisites  of  a  good  speaker.  And  I  said  to  myself,  I  will  go  and 
see  that  lady;  she  is  a  good  Methodist,  as  I  am,  and  I  will  invite 
her  to  lecture  in  Centenary  church,  of  which  I  am  trustee,  making 
this  agreement,  that  if  she  will  work  up  a  good,  popular  lecture,  I 
will  work  up  a  good,  popular  audience,  will  pay  her  a  fair  price  for 
her  effort,  and  will  see  that  it  is  well  represented  by  the  press  of 
Chicago.  It  occurs  to  me  that  as  the  result,  if  all  goes  as  well  as  I 
believe  it  will,  she  will  have  no  more  difficulty  in  making  her  liveli- 
hood and  broadening  her  opportunities  of  usefulness. ' 

' '  The  pleasant-faced  gentleman  looked  to  me  very  much  like 
a  combination  of  Santa  Claus  and  a  horn-of-plenty  as  he  uttered 
these  words.  Mother  seemed  equally  delighted,  and  we  told  him 
he  was  the  kindest  of  men  to  have  thought  of  me  with  so  much 
interest;  that  I  had  returned  from  Europe  a  few  months  before, 
earnestly  desirous  of  employing  my  time  to  the  best  advantage  for 
the  support  of  my  mother  and  myself,  and  for  the  good  of  those 
among  whom  I  might  labor;  that  what  he  had  promised  would  suit 
me  to  a  dot,  as  I  had  all  my  life  felt  a  strong  inclination  to  speak 
in  public  and  had  only  been  withheld  from  doing  so  before,  because 
of  the  somewhat  conservative  atmosphere  of  the  educational  insti- 
tutions in  which  I  had  spent  the  last  few  years  and  my  own  sensi- 
tiveness to  appearing  in  public. 

"Declaring  that  he  had  no  claim  upon  our  gratitude,  the 
pleasant  gentleman  went  his  way,  and  for  the  next  three  weeks  he 
invested  a  good  share  of  his  time  in  interviewing  influential  persons 
and  in  working  up,  with  all  the  ingenuity  of  which  he  was  a  con- 
summate master,  an  interest  in  me  and  in  the  lecture  that  was  to  be. 

' '  For  myself,  I  spent  those  three  weeks  in  the  closest  kind  of 


348 


MEMORIAL    VOLUME 


study,  writing  and  committing  to  memory  a  lecture  about  one  hour 
and  a  half  long,  entitled  '  The  New  Chivalry. ' 

"On  the  evening  of  March  21,  1871,  I  appeared  with  my 
friends,  Rev.  Dr.  Reid,  editor  of  the  Northwestern  Christian 
Advocate,  and  his  daughter  Annie,  at  the  luxurious  home  of  the 
kind  gentleman,  where  we  took  tea,  and  then  went  over  to  the 
handsome  city  church,  where  I  was  presented  at  the  door  with 
an  elegant  card,  the  first  ticket  I  had  ever  seen  about  a  lecture 
of  my  own.  It  read  as  follows: 


MISS  FRANCES  E.  WILLARD 

WILL    GIVE    HER    LECTURE, 

"THE  NEW  CHIVALRY," 

In  the  Centenary  (Dr.  Fowler's)  Church, 

TUESDAY  EVENING,  MARCH  21,  1871,  AT  7:30  p.  M. 

TICKETS,  TWENTY-FIVE  CENTS. 


' '  The  pleasant-faced  gentleman  said,  as  he  reached  his  kindly 
hand  to  me,  '  Turn  the  crank  skillfully  at  your  end  of  the  church, 
and  I  will  do  so  here, '  for,  behold,  he  was  gathering  up  the  tickets 
himself !  I  was  gracefully  introduced  by  Dr.  Fowler,  the  pastor 
of  the  church,  and  spoke  my  piece,  making  no  reference  whatever 
to  my  manuscript,  which  lay  concealed  in  a  modest  portfolio  that 
had  been  previously  carried  in  and  placed  upon  the  pulpit.  My 
audience  consisted  of  the  elite  of  the  West  Side,  with  many  from 
the  North  and  South  Sides,  and  they  cheered  me  far  beyond  my 
merits.  At  the  close  the  pleasant  gentleman  introduced  me  to  a 
semi-circle  of  well-known  journalists  of  the  city,  whom  he  had  as 
good  as  coerced  into  being  present;  and,  in  my  private  opinion,  he 
had  caused  to  be  written  up  at  his  dictation  the  very  nice  notices 
that  the  young  debutante  upon  the  platform  was  so  fortunate  as  to 
win  from  the  Chicago  press. " 

More  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  has  elapsed  since  that  audi- 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  349 

ence  melted  away  in  the  darkness  of  that  evening,  and  at  a  hundred 
firesides  there  was  discussed  that  night  the  old  question  as  to 
whether  any  woman  ought  really  to  be  as  eloquent  and  powerful  as 
was  the  young  woman  who  had  come  to  Centenary  church  from 
Evanston  and  captured  so  large  an  audience.  In  at  least  one  home 
the  prophecy  was  made  that  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore  (of  whom 
Miss  Willard  loved  to  say:  "Everybody  agrees  that  she  is  our 
present  queen  of  the  platform,  and  no  American  woman  has  a  bet- 
ter record  for  patriotism  and  philanthropy")  had  already  a  rival 
in  excellence  of  speech  and  nobility  of  endeavor  in  Frances  E. 
Willard. 

Miss  Willard  did  not  possess  the  splendid  physical  presence 
which  in  Mrs.  Livermore — a  speaker  she  never  ceased  to  admire — 
has  bent  the  bow  of  Ulysses  with  a  superb  and  queenly  ease.  But 
when  the  bowstring  twanged  which  her  fingers  had  touched,  an 
arrow  sped,  as  sharply  tipped,  as  finely  feathered,  as  sure  to  hit  the 
object  aimed  at,  as  though  the  speaker  had  been  of  enormous  frame 
and  breathed  through  a  pair  of  organ-like  lungs.  Indeed,  students 
of  oratory  will  agree  that  the  wonder  of  Miss  Willard's  physical 
constitution,  as  compared  with  the  amount  of  work  which  she 
performed  and  the  achievements  she  wrought  as  a  public  speaker, 
passed  strangely  out  of  sight  when  she  exercised  upon  her  audience 
the  charm  of  her  mellow  and  finely  cadenced  voice,  attuned  to  the 
strenuous  rhythm  of  her  thought  and  feeling.  When  asked  if  she 
were  a  very  large  woman,  an  old  toper,  who  was  also  a  great  lawyer, 
said,  in  describing  her  speech  of  the  night  before :  "I  should  think 
her  about  eight  feet  high  and  weighing  about  four  hundred  pounds 
avoirdupois;  but  when  she  was  wooing  my  heart  to  a  better  life,  I 
thought  then,  and  think  now,  that  she  was  the  sweetest  little  being 
in  the  world. "  When  an  audience  of  six  thousand  had  assembled 
together  and  Miss  Willard  had  serious  arguments  to  plead  and 
something  of  a  prejudice  to  overcome  by  battling  for  a  position  to 
which  even  the  majority  of  her  sisters  had  not  assented,  one  wished 
she  had  more  of  brawny  stoutness.  When  the  harp  trembled  and 
shook  with  emotion,  as  she  spoke  of  what  she  meant  to  do  by  the 


350  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

grace  of  God  and  by  force  of  strength  that  night,  we  feared  that 
the  strings  might  be  worn  away  and  the  echoing  harmony  be  heard 
vanishingly;  but  as  the  eye  lit  up  with  hitherto  unseen  fire,  the 
finely  mobile  lips  moved  with  great  messages  so  easily,  the  chest 
expanded  from  slightness  to  largeness  and  strength  proportionate 
to  the  richness  of  the  outpouring  truth,  the  most  affectionate  and 
anxious  friend  felt  supreme  confidence  in  the  strength  of  her  nerves 
and  the  boundlessness  of  her  vital  energy,  and  nothing  seemed  able 
to  tire  or  to  vanquish  that  combination  of  powers  which  was  illumi- 
nated by  the  vast  reserve  of  spiritual  power  attending  her  progress. 
Those  who  heard  and  saw  her  as  she  spoke  knew  something  of  that 
heredity  and  the  long  years  of  excellent  breeding  which  was  in  the 
blood  that  rose  into  such  luminous  flush  and  communicated  its 
rapture  to  a  whole  audience,  eloquent  and  confident  of  triumph. 
If  she  had  possessed  such  a  powerful  frame  as  would  have  sug- 
gested a  female  Mirabeau  or  a  woman  like  Burke,  something  of  the 
spiritual  forcefulness  of  her  presence  and  message  must  have 
faded.  To  hear  her,  after  the  massive  speech  of  even  a  more 
ponderous  brain  to  whom  auditors  gave  shouts  of  approval,  was  like 
listening  to  Wendell  Phillips,  calm,  yet  fiery,  alert,  yet  serenely 
sure  of  the  truth,  while  yet  the  magnificent  excitement  and  stalwart 
glory  of  Daniel  Webster  made  the  air  tremble  and  burn.  Her 
cause  gained  always  by  the  fact  that  an  auditor  was  perfectly 
certain,  in  her  case,  that  it  was  ' '  only  a  woman  "  after  all,  speaking. 
A  perfect  lady  of  her  size  must  always  seem  to  depend  upon  the 
forces  that  neither  bear  down  upon  wrong  with  prodigious  material 
strength  nor  outdazzle  wickedness  in  its  flaming  audacity  by  spas- 
modic brilliance.  When  she  pleaded  for  womanhood,  the  gentle- 
ness and  quietness  of  her  demeanor,  the  modesty  of  accent  and 
sweetness  of  tone,  made  woman's  cause  not  less  womanly  than 
woman  herself  at  her  best.  One  of  the  boldest  of  the  sons  of 
Bacchus,  himself  an  orator  of  no  mean  power,  confessed  that  he 
believed  ' '  she  could  write  a  most  captivating  love  letter. " 

Her  voice  had  the  harmonious  swell,  the  exquisite  flexibility, 
the  varied  richness,  the  height  and  depth  which  made  her  capable 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES —TRIBUTES  351 

at  all  times  of  touching  into  response  almost  every  string  in  human 
nature.  At  Baltimore,  one  of  the  greatest  of  our  college  presi- 
dents, who  has  made  a  comprehensive  study  of  the  forces  of  elo- 
quence, heard  her  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  remarked,  at  the 
close  of  her  address:  "The  cause  which  she  represents  touches 
every  interest  of  the  human  soul  and  body,  and  she  has  applied  its 
persuasive  appeal  to  every  quality  and  concern  of  my  personality. " 
It  was  a  remarkable  audience  —  more  than  a  thousand  of  her 
sisters  in  her  chosen  work,  hundreds  of  restless  and  eager  college 

o  o 

students,  scores  of  doubtful  conservatives  and  unemotional  educa- 
tors, long  serried  ranks  of  men  and  women  standing  on  their  feet, 
who  had  "just  come  to  hear  a  woman  slash  into  things  ";  but  it  is 
doubtful  if,  in  that  hour's  utterance,  there  was  not  wakened  in  each 
soul  some  profound  sympathy,  first  for  her  who  made  music  in 
each  soul's  particular  key,  and  then  for  the  cause  which  seemed  at 
first  to  each  one  a  personal  affair,  and  was  indeed  as  wide  as 
humanity  itself. 

Miss  Willard  never  needed  to  assume  modesty  —  she  was 
modesty  incarnate.  With  such  a  range  of  power,  she  ought  to 
have  apologized  for  the  first  five  minutes  of  tame  and  easy  address 
when  so  much  was  expected.  But  the  flame  of  usual  size  and 
intensity  had  not  yet  begun  to  quiver  and  glow;  the  variously 
toned  organ  had  not  yet  shown  its  possibilities  of  music,  and  it  was 
best  that  unarmed  the  peaceful  opposition  should  be  met  and  con- 
quered. She  has  herself  spoken  of  her  own  feelings  on  an  occa- 
sion like  this: 

"Always,  in  the  presence  of  an  audience,  I  am  saying  to 
myself  at  one  time  or  another,  '  How  dare  I  stand  here,  taking  at 
least  a  thousand  hours  of  time,  and  focalizing  the  attention  of  a 
thousand  immortal  spirits?  Who  am  I,  that  so  great  possibilities 
of  influence  should  have  fallen  to  my  lot?  And  I  must  remember 
that  there  is  a  stenographer  always  present,  the  stenographer  of 
memory,  and  that  in  the  white  light  of  the  world  to  come,  not  only 
what  I  utter  here,  but  every  thought  I  think,  will  stand  out  plain 
as  the  sun  in  the  heavens  —  for  every  soul  shall  give  account  of 


352  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

himself  to  God.'  There  is  something  unspeakably  pathetic  about 
the  life  of  one  to  whom  must  frequently  recur  the  unmatched 
responsibility  of  meeting  public  audiences.  His  is  a  joy  and  sorrow 
with  which  none  intermeddleth.  A  ring  at  the  bell  may  dissipate 
a  thought  he  was  just  catching  on  his  pencil's  tip  in  the  preparation 
of  a  speech ;  a  rap  at  the  door  may  put  to  flight  the  outline  of  an 
address;  the  constant  coming  and  going  of  people  who  really  must 
see  him,  break  into  staccato  snatches  the  speech  that  might  have 
been  flowing,  deep  and  bright.  His  riches,  what  he  has,  are  like 
Sojourner  Truth's — 'in  his  idees' — yet  they  are  scattered  right 
and  left,  as  if  they  were  of  the  smallest  consequence,  because  they 
are  impalpable,  invisible,  unheard.  He  grieves  for  the  thousand 
children  of  the  brain  that  might  have  come  to  light  had  they  not 
been  throttled  in  their  birth.  He  knows  the  meaning  of  the  words, 
'Travail  of  soul.'  Then  he  must  put  aside  a  thousand  pleasant 
things  in  nature,  music,  books,  society,  for  he  has  a  certain  speech 
to  make  at  a  certain  time,  and,  like  an  engine  on  the  track,  he  must 
go  forward  toward  that  time.  True  as  this  is  on  a  great  scale  of 
the  great  speakers,  it  is  also  pathetically  true  of  us  who  are  the 
lesser  lights." 

With  such  a  physical  organization  and  with  such  a  voice  there 
might  have  been  failure  if  her  mental  and  spiritual  machinery 
had  not  been  of  such  a  rare  fashion  and  so  exquisitely  set  up  and 
finely  adjusted  within  her  personality.  ' '  Why,  this  woman  can 
argue  as  Evarts  does,  and  she  sustains  her  flight  of  thought  as 
Evarts  cannot  do  without  interminably  long  sentences, "  remarked 
one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  who 
presided  at  one  of  her  meetings.  She  seemed  always  to  think  on 
her  feet,  and  the  unfailing  continuity  of  her  well-directed  reason- 
ing, when  she  had  a  task  to  perform  with  the  intellects  of  men, 
witnessed  not  only  to  the  industry  and  reflectiveness  of  her  mind, 
but  it  furnished  a  marvelous  testimony  to  its  solidity  and  strength. 
The  central  stream  of  thought  never  left  the  stream-bed  dry,  nor 
did  it  meander  out  of  sight  beneath  intertwining  roots  of  tall,  over- 
hanging trees,  which  often  prove  an  excellent  stopping  place  for 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  353 

an  audience  seeking  coolness  and  shelter,  and  even  sleep.  In  an 
address  in  Plymouth  church,  Brooklyn,  of  which  Mr.  Beecher  told 
the  present  writer  as  often  as  the  name  of  Frances  Willard  came 
to  his  lips,  she  proved  herself  able  to  take  the  audience  he  had 
trained  to  think,  and  to  enjoy  thinking  with  him;  and  she  invested 
her  task  and  efforts  with  such  radiance  of  humor  and  flashes  of  wit 
that  one  of  his  warmest  admirers  said  of  her:  "She  has  beaten 
the  old  man  on  his  own  ground,  and  at  the  one  job  he  has  done 
with  a  success  unequaled  in  any  age. " 

A  witty  remark  or  a  dash  of  humor  has  oiten  proved  itself  so 
interesting  to  the  speaker,  that,  for  a  moment,  the  thought  has 
been  deflected  or  the  current  of  reasoning  turned  aside.  This  was 
never  so  with  Miss  Willard.  Her  humor  is  spoken  of  in  another 
place.  It  enabled  her  to  be  companionable  with  Joel  Chandler 
Harris;  and  Gough  often  told  two  of  her  stories,  which  were  only 
a  couple  from  the  multitude  which  she  left,  like  hearty  laughs  to 
ring  yet  in  the  parlors  where  she  was  entertained  or  in  great 
audience  rooms  where  she  had  spoken.  Her  wit,  which  never 
degenerated  into  scorn  or  quivered  with  a  drop  of  poison,  flashed 
and  oftentimes  cut  deep  into  the  heart  of  crowned  evil  or  silken 
pretense.  But  neither  wit  nor  humor  betrayed  her  into  losing  the 
main  chance  of  enforcing  her  thought  and  at  least  making  the 
audience  she  addressed  know  the  reasons  why  she  held  to  certain 
propositions.  Her  will  seemed  to  gather  to  itself  all  the  powers  of 
her  personality.  Eloquence  is  often  an  exhibition  of  brilliant  weak- 
ness, because,  amidst  the  excitement  of  kindled  souls,  no  dominat- 
ing will  issues  its  high  command  from  the  throne  of  some  imperial 
righteousness.  The  fatal  difference  between  a  fascinating  speaker, 
possessing  every  desirable  quality  of  presence,  intellectual  acute- 
ness,  comprehensive  vision,  warm  emotional  nature,  and  the  true 
orator,  oftentimes  lies  in  this,  that  the  former  has  no  set  and 
granitic  purpose  to  which  men  may  attach  their  own  sympathies 
and  convictions.  Miss  Willard's  will  came  through  long  genera- 
tions of  men  and  women  who  were  oftentimes  thought  to  be  a  trifle 
stubborn,  and  her  will  was  as  soft  as  sunshine,  yet  as  pervasive  and 

23 


354  MEMORIAL    VOL  UME 

resistless  as  dawn.  At  the  height  of  her  power,  it  seemed  the  sub- 
lime power  which  most  identified  her  and  her  cause  with  the  Will 
which  controls  the  universe.  A  poetic  imagination  which  in  early 
years  had  fluted  upon  many  reeds  and  filled  the  household  with 
song,  a  remarkable  memory  which  was  never  so  sure  or  so  far- 
reaching  as  when  she  forgot  her  manuscript  and  laid  her  tax  upon 
the  entire  past,  a  clear,  strong  faculty  for  ratiocination,  a  passionate 
love  of  study  such  as  rescues  fluency  from  its  disorder  and  converts 
declaiming  into  oratory  —  these  were  some  of  th3  possessions  and 
qualities  which  she  had  to  offer  to  the  cause  which  found  her. 

The  cause  of  temperance  and  the  emancipation  of  woman, 
bound  up  as  they  are  with  the  cause  of  purity,  are  sure  to  furnish 
a  fit  theme  for  a  whole  life's  utterance  out  of  such  a  soul  and  body. 
The  cause,  on  the  other  hand,  was  sure  to  find  in  her  all  the  stops 
and  keys  which  were  necessary  for  the  complete  expression  of  its 
many-sided  appeal,  its  varied  demand,  and  its  world-wide  hope. 
Every  human  being  is  more  than  himself  when  a  great  cause  takes 
him,  sweeps  him  on  in  his  development  and  triumph,  and  calls  him 
its  own.  The  tenderness  of  Miss  Willard's  nature,  her  home-loving 
disposition,  her  deep  love  for  humanity  —  a  characteristic  of  spirit 
which  must  always  belong  to  a  great  public  speaker  —  might  have 
become  sentimental  indeed  if  the  cause  for  which  she  strove  had 
not  laid  tribute,  through  all  her  oratorical  genius,  upon  her  intel- 
lectual strength  and  spiritual  completeness. 

No  subject  has  furnished  more  of  superficial  emotion  and  iter- 
ant and  tearful  bathos  than  has  this  majestic  theme,  deep  and 
dark  on  the  one  side,  sunswept  and  blossoming  on  the  other.  ' '  Did 
she  cry  much  ?"  asked  a  cynical  critic  of  his  young  son,  who  had 
left  his  college  duties  to  hear  her  in  Boston.  ' '  No, "  answered  the 
young  man  from  Harvard,  ' '  she  did  not  cry  any  more  about  the 
woes  of  those  who  suffered  from  intemperance  than  Emerson  would 
have  done;  no,  she  did  not  cry,  but  all  the  audience  cried,  includ- 
ing myself  ;  and  you  would  have  cried  about  the  things  she  spoke 
of  if  you  had  been  there,  and  you  would  have  cried  just  because 
she  did  not  cry."  The  writer  of  these  words  remembers  the  honor 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  355 

he  had  of  taking  Wendell  Phillips,  when  his  step  was  infirm  and 
his  health  frail,  to  hear  Miss  Willard.  He  was  particularly  struck 
with  the  ' '  sobriety  of  this  fiery  temperance  woman, "  and  all  the 
way  home  he  talked  of  the  great  temperance  speakers  of  the  world. 
It  was  his  amazement  that  such  admirable  gifts  of  administration 
should  have  been  so  subtly  interpenetrated  with  so  poetic  an 
enthusiasm  and  so  earnest  an  optimism.  Phillips  had  spoken  only 
a  short  time  before,  in  the  midst  of  the  associations  of  culture,  and 
before  an  audience  most  of  whom  were  stung  to  anger  by  the  old 
man's  scorching  irony  and  withering  sarcasm.  In  that  address  he 
had  uttered  memorable  statements  with  respect  to  the  imperial 
importance  of  the  temperance  cause,  and  in  his  effort  to  commend 
that  cause  to  fashionable  scholarship  he  had  commanded  and 
blasted  and  flamed.  When  he  was  told  that  Miss  Willard's  man- 
ner—  her  repose  of  strength,  the  consciousness  she  exhibited  of 
reserved  power,  her  wit  and  wisdom,  her  triumphant  certainty  of 
ultimate  success  —  brought  to  mind  his  own  characteristics  as  a 
public  speaker,  he  proceeded  to  say  that  no  man  possessing  the 
heart  to  feel  the  fountains  of  tears  behind  Miss  Willard's  speech 
could  have  kept  his  steadiness  and  practiced  such  restraint  upon 
his  emotions.  ' '  It  takes  a  woman  to  do  that, "  he  said.  He  laughed 
dryly,  and  said:  "Ah,  yes!  But  she  is  only  one  of  the  weaker 
vessels,  as  we  are  told. " 

Miss  Willard  always  agreed  with  George  William  Curtis  that 
the  most  comprehensive  and  philosophic  utterance  on  the  woman 
question  which  had  come  to  her  attention  was  the  address  of  Wen- 
dell Phillips  at  Worcester.  When  Phillips'  attention  was  called  to 
this,  he  said:  "We  men  do  not  understand  the  subject.  I  was 
pleading  for  the  rights  of  man.  I  would  like  to  hear  Miss  Willard 
ask  for  her  own  rights.  But, "  he  added,  ' '  there  is  neither  man  nor 
woman  in  Christ  Jesus."  No  man  more  fully  understood  the 
remarkableness  of  that  combination  which  we  knew  as  Frances 
Willard  than  did  he.  The  address  that  night  seemed  to  the  pres- 
ent writer  not  so  daring,  nor,  indeed,  so  comprehensive  as  was 
usual  with  Miss  Willard,  but  the  old  master  of  assemblies  told  me 


356  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

she  reminded  him  of  Theodore  Weld,  whom  Phillips  always  pro- 
nounced the  wisest  and  the  truest  of  anti-slavery  orators.  ' '  I  am 
accused  of  being  scornful  and  carrying  a  whole  armory  about  with 
me  —  a  combination  of  destructive  weapons.  I  spent  most  of  my 
life  in  the  cause  of  the  black  man.  Perhaps  her  cause  is  so  much 
greater  —  certainly  she  is  so  much  greater  —  that  she  does  not  need 
to  be  scornful  or  wrathful,  as  we  were.  Our  indignation  was  of  a 
pretty  sound  quality, "  he  added,  ' '  but  hers  is  the  faith  of  the  Lord 
God  Almighty  in  its  fullness.  She  is  very  restless  under  wrong, 
but  she  can  wait.  It  is  a  great  faith  that  wonderful  woman  has." 
Accosted  the  next  day  by  an  autograph  hunter,  who  was  held  by 
the  old  man  far  toward  the  night,  as  he  showed  him  relics  of  the 
abolitionists  and  memorials  of  his  own  labors,  he  was  about  to  bid 
the  young  man  good  evening,  when  the  latter,  half  patronizingly, 
said:  "Mr.  Phillips,  I  think  if  I  had  lived  in  your  time,  I  would 
have  been  heroic,  too."  Phillips,  as  he  stood  on  the  doorstep, 
pointed  to  the  open  places  of  iniquity  near  his  dwelling  place,  and 
said:  "  Young  man,  you  are  living  in  my  time,  and  in  God's  time. 
Did  you  hear  Frances  Willard  last  night  ?  Be  assured,  no  man 
would  have  been  heroic  then  who  is  not  heroic  now.  Good  night. '' 

Miss  Willard  has  written  very  interestingly  about  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  and  she  never  feared  the  reproach  of  having  "bowed 
down  before  the  first  member  of  this  magnificent  family  that  my 
eyes  had  yet  beheld,  "as  she  said.  Her  mother's  hero  was  the 
Plymouth  preacher,  and  Frances'  girlhood  was  influenced  largely 
by  the  reading  of  Beecher's  sermons,  and  the  heroic  confidence  of 
her  mother  at  the  time  of  his  terrible  trial.  Mrs.  Livermore 
brought  her  into  friendship  with  the  minister  and  philanthropist, 
and  soon  she  was  speaking  in  Plymouth  church.  While  they 
could  not  agree  with  one  another  in  many  things,  each  agreed  that 
the  other  possessed  genius. 

As  one  reads  over  the  affectionate  words  written  by  Miss  Wil- 
lard concerning  Mr.  Beecher,  he  reflects  that  he  has  only  to  have 
been  favored  with  the  preacher's  opinion  as  a  public  speaker  to 
assure  the  readers  of  her  biography  that  he  always  regarded  her  as 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  357 

1 '  an  incarnate  and  resistless  argument  for  the  complete  emancipa- 
tion of  woman  and  for  everything  else  that  was  good. "  No  one 
knew  more  truly  than  the  eloquent  preacher  how  difficult  and  mar- 
velous is  the  association  of  commanding  intellectual  powers  with 
the  rich  and  restless  emotional  experiences.  It  was  Mr.  Beecher's 
theory  that  no  woman  in  our  age  more  truly  illustrated  the  fact  that 
forcefulness  and  influence  for  good  can  be  obtained  only  by  the 
alliance  of  a  clear  head  with  a  warm  heart  in  public  than  did 
Frances  Willard.  ' '  I  always  feel, "  said  he,  ' '  that  she  might  inun- 
date the  whole  assembly  with  tears  if  she  were  not  so  wise,  and 
that  she  might  take  us  to  heights  of  reasoning  where  we  would  all 
freeze  to  death,  if  she  were  not  so  kind." 

Such  are  the  opinions  of  two  of  the  most  effective  of  Ameri- 
can orators  concerning  the  wedded  strength  and  sweetness  in  Miss 
Willard's  career  as  an  orator.  But  the  old  Quaker  poet  was  right 
when  he  said  of  her:  "  I  always  want  to  tell  her,  '  thee  must  know 
thee  is  great  only  as  thy  cause  makes  thee  great.  Thee  might  be 
only  a  lot  of  good  qualities  if  thee  had  not  been  fused. ' '  It  is  true 
the  commanding  cause  held  her  intellectual  and  spiritual  and 
physical  powers  in  unity,  and  actually  fused  them  into  a  white  heat, 
which,  however,  never  left  the  bounds  of  safety  save  in  radiance. 


THE  WORLD'S   FRIEND 
MARY  LOWE  DICKINSON 

In  a  time  like  this  it  seems  hardly  fitting  that  one  should  speak 
of  individual  or  personal  bereavement.  Our  loss  is  universal,  and 
the  bereavement  seems  to  have  stirred  the  pulse  of  sorrow  in  the 
heart  of  the  whole  nation. 

We  know  of  no  other  instance  when  over  the  grave  of  any 
man  or  woman  was  outpoured  such  a  flood  of  appreciation,  of 
affection  and  regret.  That  flood  rose  until,  like  a  sea,  it  has  swept 
over  the  press  and  the  pulpit  and  found  its  way  into  the  inlets  of 
ten  thousand  homes  and  many  times  ten  thousand  hearts.  It  is  a 
privilege_to  be  allowed  to  add  the  little  drop,  which  is  all  that  any 


358  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

one  of  us  can  offer  to  swell  that  universal  tide.  If  on  our  little  drop 
the  light  falls  so  that  it  reflects  the  image  that  her  character  has 
left  upon  our  hearts,  it  is  all  that  we  can  hope. 

For  many  of  us  it  is  hard  to  think  of  her,  as  we  ought  first,  as 
the  world's  woman  and  the  world's  friend.  The  instinctive  claim 
of  affection  calls  her  "our  woman  "  and  "our  friend ";  and  yet  we 
must  not  forget  that  it  was  her  great  value  to  the  world  that  gave 
her  friendship  its  great  value  to  individual  souls. 

During  the  great  meetings  of  the  Congress  of  Representative 
Women  at  the  time  of  the  Columbian  Exposition,  speaking  of  the 
women  who  formed  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union, 
I  said: 

"They  made  a  union,  and  that  was  great.  They  made  a 
Temperance  union,  and  that  was  greater.  They  made  a  Woman's 
temperance  union,  and  that  was  greatest.  But  they  made  a 
woman's  Christian  temperance  union,  and  that  fact  made  the 
greatness  of  all  the  rest." 

That  which  we  said  then  of  the  organization  through  which 
the  life  of  Frances  Willard  found  its  best  expression,  applies 
equally  well  to  the  woman  herself.  She  made  union.  That  is, 
she  was  among  the  first  to  recognize  and  to  develop  the  possibil- 
ities of  co-operation.  In  this  she  was  great.  She  showed  herself 
greater  still  in  her  power  to  discern  and  to  choose  the  one  Cause  on 
whose  success  hung  the  welfare  of  the  world.  And  she  was  surely 
greatest  when  she  made  a  Woman  s  union,  concentrating  and  com- 
bining all  the  highest  womanly  forces  for  the  moral  uplift  of  home 
and  native  land. 

The  great  thought  of  her  great  heart  was  to  gather  the  women 
of  the  world  together  and  make  of  their  outstretched  arms  an 
orphanage  for  the  world's  childhood,  and  of  their  throbbing  hearts 
a  bulwark  against  the  world's  misery  and  sin  and  shame. 

Yet  in  all  her  grand  conception  and  magnificent  execution,  the 
fact  that  the  co-operation  she  sought  was  to  be  a  Christian  union 
was  kept  ever  in  the  foreground.  No  matter  on  what  field  the 
fight  for  temperance  and  purity  and  patriotism  was  to  be  fought 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES—  TRIBUTES  359 

out,  over  every  battle  this  Christian  banner  hung.  Under  it  her 
own  life-march  went  grandly  heavenward.  Under  it  the  grieving 
ranks  of  the  women  who  follow  her  leadership  must  go  forward  to 
the  battles  that  are,  as  yet,  unwon. 

In  the  emphasis  given  to  this  side  of  her  lifework  lies  its 
strength  in  the  future.  We  believe  that  if  the  sealed  lips  spoke  to 
us  tonight  from  some  calm  height  among  the  hills  of  God,  that  it 
would  be  to  bid  the  women  of  the  world  to  stand  together  to  secure 
for  the  world  a  truer  motherhood,  a  finer  boyhood,  a  nobler  man- 
hood, a  higher  type  of  citizenship,  and,  through  the  help  of  a 
united  Christian  womanhood,  homes  lifted  from  dishonor  and  a 
land  redeemed  from  shame. 

One  might  easily  fill  a  book  with  what  could  be  said  of  this 
living  and  loving  friend  of  humanity.  As  a  child  in  the  prairie 
home,  as  a  student,  as  an  educator  —  the  touch  of  whose  character 
was  laid  upon  many  a  young  life  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  —  as 
an  organizer,  a  discoverer  of  the  undeveloped  forces  in  womanly 
nature,  as  a  leader  and  as  an  ideal  Christian  woman  of  her  day, 
she  might  be  brought  before  us  as  a  lasting  inspiration.  But  mul- 
tiplication of  words  is  vain.  We  women  of  her  century  pay  her 
highest  tribute  and  do  her  greatest  honor  when  we  learn  to  love 
humanity  as  she  loved  it,  and  to  live  under  the  control  of  such 
motives  as  dignified  her  life. 

The  following  words,  adapted  to  the  sweet  old  tune  of  ' '  Lead, 
Kindly  Light, "  were  written  in  part  by  Miss  Willard's  side  as  she 
lay  in  that  exalted  sleep  under  which  years  and  pain  and  care 
faded  till  her  face  shone  out  upon  us  radiant  with  immortal  light 
and  calm  with  the  unspeakable  peace  of  God: 

SLEEP  WELL,    BRAVE    HEART. 

' '  Sleep  well,  brave  heart !     Beloved  of  Christ  and  crowned, 

God  gives  thee  sleep. 
The  wide  world's  love  enwraps  thy  slumber  round, 

God  gives  thee  sleep. 

His  angels  smile,  His  stricken  children  weep, 
Yet  smiles  nor  tears  shall  break  thy  blessed  sleep. 


360  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

1 '  O,  wondrous  face  !  whose  solemn,  mystic  grace 

O'erfloods  the  gloom 
Till  grief  in  all  this  sorrow-shadowed  place 

No  more  finds  room. 

Show  us,  dear  Lord,  what  sight  breaks  on  her  eyes  ! 
Let  us,  too,  hear  the  voice  that  bids  her  rise. 

4 '  Chide  not  our  tears,  so  weak  we  are  and  blind, 

For  she  would  share  , 

Her  gladness  with  us  who  are  left  behind, 
Heed  Thou  our  prayer. 

Not  yet  ?     Not  yet  ?     The  vision  tarrieth  still  ? 

Then  grant  us,  Lord,  with  her,  to  love  Thy  will. 

"To  work  Thy  will,  to  follow  where  she  trod, 

Without  one  fear; 
To  drink  her  cup,  to  climb  the  heights  of  God, 

Knowing  her  near; 

To  make  her  joy  more  joyful  by  our  strife; 
So  may  we  share,  e'en  here,  her  glorious  life. 

4 '  So  shall  our  homes,  our  land  in  shame  so  long, 

Be  cleansed  from  wrong; 
So  shall  our  hearts  that  break  through  love  be  strong; 

So  shall  the  throng 

Of  suffering  souls  still  through  thy  life  be  blessed. 
Thy  work  rests  not,  brave  heart.     Take  thou  thy  rest.' 

An  address  delivered  at  a  Memorial  Service  at  the  residence  of  Mrs.  William  Dodge, 
New  York  City. 


FRANCES  E.  WILLARD  AND  THE  KNIGHTS  OF  THE  NEW 

CHIVALRY 

REV.  NEWELL  DWIGHT  HILLIS,  D.D. 

Already  an  English,  a  French  and  an  American  historian  have 
told  the  story  of  the  achievements  of  this  closing  half  century. 
From  different  view-points  these  scholars  have  characterized  our 
epoch  as  illustrious  for  what  it  has  accomplished  in  politics,  in  war 
and  wealth,  in  commerce  and  invention.  But  if  our  century  has 
been  a  proud  one  for  all  lovers  of  their  kind,  its  pre-eminence  does 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  361 

not  rest  upon  the  increase  of  tools  releasing  the  multitudes  from 
drudgery;  the  increase  of  books  releasing  the  multitudes  from 
ignorance;  the  diffusion  of  art  releasing  the  multitudes  from  ugli- 
ness; the  development  of  science  releasing  the  multitudes  from 
squalor,  pain  and  suffering.  When  long  time  has  passed  by, 
historians  will  see  that  the  crowning  glory  of  our  century  has  been 
the  rise  of  its  humanists  and  the  development  of  a  new  order  of 
chivalry. 

For  the  first  time  in  history,  the  material  forces  of  society  have 
begun  to  be  Christianized,  and  literature  and  wealth,  position  and 
eloquence  have  allied  themselves  with  the  poor  and  the  weak.  No 
longer  can  rank  bribe  scholarship,  or  riches  monopolize  genius.  In 
France  our  epoch  has  witnessed  the  rise  of  Victor  Hugo's  school, 
consecrating  talent  to  the  convicts  and  the  poor  of  great  cities.  In 
England  Charles  Dickens  pleads  the  cause  of  the  orphan  and  the 
waif,  as  typified  by  Oliver  Twist  and  David  Copperfield,  while 
Kingsley,  Besant  and  Shaftesbury  speak  and  write  for  the  laborers 
in  mines  and  factories.  In  our  own  land  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe 
represents  a  multitude  of  writers  who  seek  to  ameliorate  the  lot  of 
the  slave  and  the  outcast.  The  poets  and  essayists  also,  Lowell 
and  Whittier,  Ruskin  and  Carlyle;  those  heroic  soldiers  named 
Gordon  and  Lord  Lawrence;  intrepid  discoverers  like  Livingstone; 
living  philanthropists  and  reformers,  too,  there  are,  whose  names 
may  not  be  mentioned  until  death  hath  starred  them  —  these  all 
have  counted  themselves  as  retained  by  God  in  the  interests  of  the 
weak  and  the  downtrodden.  If  in  former  centuries  a  single  name 
like  Dante  or  Luther  stands  for  an  epoch,  the  hero  being  like  a  star 
riding  solitary  through  the  night,  in  our  era  the  humanists  and 
knights  of  social  reform  are  a  great  multitude,  like  stars,  indeed, 
for  their  brightness  and  number,  and  like  stars  also  in  that  "God 
calleth  them  all  by  name. " 

In  all  ages  the  reformers  have  gone  the  way  of  contempt, 
obloquy  and  shame,  having  their  Gethsemane.  From  Paul  to 
Luther  and  Garrison  and  Gough,  these  men  have  been  the  best 
hated  men  of  their  times.  In  our  fathers'  day  the  very  skies 


362  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

rained  lies  and  cruel  slander  upon  these  abolitionists  who  affirmed 
that  the  fugitive  slave  law  "was  a  compact  with  hell  and  a  league 
with  the  devil. "  But  if  in  the  lifetime  of  the  reformers  the  fathers 
stoned  the  prophets  through  the  streets,  covered  their  garments 
with  filth,  mobbed  their  halls  and  houses,  the  children  are  building 
monuments  to  the  reformers  and  teaching  their  sons  the  pathway 
to  the  hero's  tomb.  ' '  Time  writes  the  final  epitaph, "  said  Bacon, 
and  we  now  see  that  those  who  in  their  lifetime  allied  themselves 
with  the  poor  and  weak  have  supremacy  over  the  orators  and 
statesmen  and  scholars  who  loved  position  and  toiled  for  self. 

In  the  interests  of  its  children  and  youth,  what  would  not 
this  nation  give  today  if  Daniel  Webster  and  Rufus  Choate  and 
Edward  Everett  had  only  refused  compromise,  stood  unflinchingly 
for  principle,  and  marched  straight  to  that  certain  defeat  in  life 
that  would  have  meant  a  certain  victory  after  death  ?  In  the  Pan- 
theon of  our  immortals  we  now  behold  those  intrepid  reformers 
and  radicals  who  once  vexed  conservatism  and  annoyed  the  wealthy 
classes  who  loved  ease,  while  the  jurists  and  merchants  and  states- 
men who  sacrificed  principle  to  selfish  supremacy  have  received 
neither  statue  nor  portrait,  and  have  already  passed  into  forgetful- 
ness  and  obscurity. 

But  there  in  the  sunlight  stands,  and  shall  stand  forever,  that 
Whittier,  whose  message  was,  indeed,  sweetness  and  light,  but 
who,  when  the  fugitive  slave  law  was  passed,  acted  the  hero's  part, 
forged  his  thunderbolt,  and  wrote  ' '  Ichabod  "  across  the  brow  of 
the  erring  statesman.  And  here  is  that  elegant  patrician,  Wendell 
Phillips,  the  idol  of  Boston's  most  exclusive  circle,  the  brilliant 
champion  of  purity  and  conservatism,  with  his  ambition  for  a  place 
in  the  Senate  and  supremacy  for  constitutional  law,  who  proudly 
took  his  stand  beside  the  slave  and  knew  that  all  the  doors  upon 
the  avenues  had  closed  behind  him,  and,  when  his  city  jeered, 
hurled  his  polished  epithets  and  scornful  arrows  upon  the  beautiful 
women  and  the  cowardly  men  who  once  had  been  his  companions. 
And  here  is  Charles  Sumner,  with  his  knowledge  of  international 
law,  his  skill  in  diplomacy  and  his  ambition  for  foreign  service, 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  363 

who  gave  up  all  his  hopes  and  bound  his  motto  as  a  frontlet 
between  his  eyes,  ' '  Bondage  must  be  destroyed  and  liberty  estab- 
lished, "  and  who  was  at  last  knighted  by  the  club  of  a  coward, 
who  smote  him  in  the  Senate  chamber  and  brought  the  statesman 
to  honor  and  immortality. 

And  here  is  Garrison,  serenely  setting  type  for  the  Liberator, 
smiling  scornfully  upon  the  mob  howling  in  the  streets  below  his 
windows,  even  though  destined  an  hour  later  to  be  dragged  over 
the  stones  with  a  rope  around  his  neck,  and  who  in  that  hour  was 
the  only  cool  man  in  all  the  demoniac  crowd;  and  here  is  Lowell 
tuning  his  harp  to  songs  of  liberty;  and  Emerson  from  his  study 
flinging  cold,  philosophical  reflections  into  the  very  teeth  of  slavery ; 
and  here  is  Beecher  with  his  flaming  torch  kindling  the  fires  of 
liberty  all  over  the  land;  and  here  is  Douglass  with  his  scars  speaking 
eloquently  of  the  horrors  of  the  slave  market  and  the  cotton  field; 
and  here  is  John  Brown  with  smiling  face  and  sunny  heart  going 
bravely  to  his  martyrdom;  and  here  also  the  company  of  noble 
women  with  their  books  and  songs  and  stories,  strengthening  the 
battle  line.  Nor  must  we  forget  Florence  Nightingale  with  her 
crusade  in  the  hospital  and  prison;  Horace  Mann  with  his  crusade 
against  ignorance;  Gough  with  his  crusade  against  intemperance; 
General  Booth  with  his  crusade  for  the  neglected  poor  in  great 
cities,  and  Livingstone  toiling  unceasingly  through  weary  years  to 
encircle  the  dark  continent  with  lighthouses  for  mind  and  heart. 
The  time  was  when  these  reformers  were  despised,  scoffed  at  and 
mobbed,  with  whose  very  names  men  would  not  defile  their  lips. 
But  now  cities  are  erecting  their  statues  in  the  parks,  and,  that 
children  and  youth  may  emulate  their  virtues,  building  monuments 
in  the  public  squares.  When  time  hath  plowed  our  cities  into  dust, 
the  names  of  these  reformers  and  heroes  will  survive  as  enduring 
monuments  to  our  age  and  civilization. 

To  these  reformers  who  sought  to  destroy  slavery  must  now  be 
added  those  who  felt  that  their  task  had  only  begun  when  the 
physical  fetters  fell  off,  and  so  passed  swiftly  on  to  achieve  liberty 
for  each  enslaved  mind  and  heart  Our  city  has  just  buried  one  of 


364  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

its  noblest  daughters,  whose  achievements  for  God  and  home  and 
native  land  were  such  as  to  rank  her  as  one  of  the  most  famous 
women  of  this  century.  Only  those  who  have  lingered  long  over 
her  books  and  essays,  or  have  passed  under  the  full  spell  of  her 
luminous  speech,  or  have  considered  her  wide-reaching  influence 
upon  our  education,  our  civic  institutions,  can  understand  why  it  is 
that  two  continents  mourn  for  our  prophetess  of  self-renunciation. 
When  Mme.  De  Stael  and  George  Eliot  were  borne  to  the  tomb, 
it  could  not  be  said  of  these  daughters  of  genius  that  in  a  thousand 
towns  and  cities  the  multitudes  assembled  in  church  or  hall  to  sit 
with  bowed  heads  and  saddened  hearts,  keeping  a  sacred  tryst  with 
memory  during  that  solemn  hour  when  afar  off  memorial  words 
were  being  spoken  above  the  silent  dead.  Last  Wednesday  morn- 
ing, midst  falling  snow  and  sleet,  when  the  gray  dawn  was  passing 
over  the  city,  the  funeral  car  of  Frances  Willard  drew  slowly  into 
the  station.  The  long  sidewalks,  the  vast  building  itself,  the  outer 
squares  and  streets  were  thronged  and  crowded  with  a  multitude 
assembled  to  meet  the  body  of  a  woman  whose  life  and  words  and 
spirit  had  helped  redeem  them  to  the  higher  life  and  made  the  years 
worth  living.  Then  all  day  long  the  multitudes  surged  and  thronged 
into  the  hall  that  bore  her  name  until  fully  30,000  people  had 
passed  in  and  out. 

Beside  that  bier  also  stood  pilgrims  from  Florida  and  from 
two  other  Southern  States,  people  of  wealth,  united  to  this  woman 
by  no  blood  ties,  but  who  in  their  homes  of  luxury  felt  themselves 
to  be  her  debtors,  and  having  made  their  way  unto  this  clime  of 
ice  and  snow  that  they  might  look  for  a  moment  upon  the  face  of 
one  who  had  increased  their  happiness  and  lessened  their  misery, 
these  made  their  way  back  unto  the  land  of  fruits  and  flowers, 
where  they  hope  again  to  gain  their  health.  If  titled  folk  of  foreign 
cities  cabled  sympathy  and  sent  wreaths  and  flowers,  the  children 
of  poverty  and  suffering  also  crowded  the  streets  along  that  line  of 
funeral  march.  The  death  of  what  private  individual  since  Abra- 
ham Lincoln's  time  has  called  forth  a  thousand  memorial  funeral 
services  upon  the  afternoon  of  one  day  ?  The  time  is  not  yet  come 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  365 

for  the  analysis  of  Frances  Willard's  character  or  the  exhibition  of 
her  mental  or  moral  traits.  Among  her  divine  gifts  must  be 
included  a  body  firmly  compacted  and  of  unique  endurance,  yet 
delicately  constituted  as  an  aeolian  harp;  a  voice  sweet  as  a  flute, 
yet  heard  of  thousands;  rare  common  sense;  strength  of  reason 
and  memory;  singular  insight  into  human  nature;  intuitive  knowl- 
edge of  public  men  and  measures;  tact,  sympathy,  imagination, 
enthusiasm,  with  a  genius  for  sacrifice  and  self-renunciation.  Early 
successful  as  an  authoress,  highly  honored  with  position  or  rank  in 
the  realm  of  higher  education,  she  turned  her  back  upon  all  offers 
of  promotion. 

She  organized  a  work  for  women,  through  women;  her  brain 
conceiving  the  new  thought,  her  heart  lending  it  momentum,  her 
will  executing  the  vast  conception.  In  the  beginning  she  toiled 
without  salary,  until  she  had  expended  her  little  store,  and  came  to 
such  straits  that  for  want  of  carfare  she  had  to  walk  to  and  from 
her  dark,  bare  office.  Soon  she  set  before  herself  the  task  of 
addressing  the  people  in  every  city  in  our  land  that  had  ten  thou- 
sand people.  When  twelve  years  had  passed  by  she  had  stood 
before  4,000  audiences,  a  feat  surpassed  only  by  Beecher,  Gough 
and  Moody.  She  was  largely  instrumental  in  securing  the  enact- 
ment of  laws  in  all  the  States  of  the  Union  save  Texas,  Arkansas 
and  Virginia  to  introduce  physiological  temperance  and  the  scien- 
tific study  of  stimulants  and  narcotics  into  the  curriculum  of  the 
common  school.  For  years  she  was  misunderstood;  oft  was  she 
cruelly  criticised;  full  oft  despised  and  scorned.  But  at  last  she 
has  fulfilled  her  career.  She  is  now  with  Augusta  Stanley  and 
Florence  Nightingale,  with  Mary  Lyon  and  Lucretia  Mott  and 
Harriet  Beecher  Stowe.  She  is  with  Luther  and  Livingstone. 
She  has  met  Garrison  and  John  Brown  and  Wendell  Phillips. 
Having  met  them  and  received  their  approval,  what  cares  she 
for  our  praise  ?  It  is  of  supreme  importance  to  us  and  our 
children  that  Frances  Willard  should  think  well  of  us.  "Whom 
God  hath  crowned, "  let  us  remember,  ' '  man  may  not  discrown. " 

Not  until  our  children's  children  come  to  write  the  history  of 


366  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

the  reform  movement  of  this  century  can  the  influence  of  the  noble 
women  who  have  toiled  for  temperance  be  rightly  understood. 
Nevertheless,  if  we  contrast  the  drinking  habits  and  customs  of  the 
former  generations  with  those  of  our  own  era  we  shall  obtain  some 
conception  of  the  enormous  gains  made  in  national  sobriety.  If 
today  in  Frances  Willard's  home  in  Evanston  the  children  and 
youth  of  ninety-five  homes  out  of  each  hundred  have  never  known 
the  taste  of  spirits,  at  the  beginning  of  this  century  drunkenness 
was  well-nigh  universal.  But  eighty  years  have  passed  by  since 
Lyman  Beecher  said:  "Rum  consecrates  our  baptisms,  our  wed- 
dings and  our  funerals.  Our  vices  are  digging  the  graves  of  our 
liberties. "  About  the  same  time,  when  a  prominent  merchant  of 
Philadelphia  died,  and  his  pastor  went  to  the  house  to  the  funeral, 
he  found  the  table  under  the  trees  was  spread  with  liquor,  in  which 
the  people  were  freely  indulging.  The  writer  affirms  that  on  reach- 
ing the  grave,  save  himself  and  the  grave  digger,  there  was  not  a 
man  present  who  was  not  in  danger,  through  intoxication,  of  falling 
into  the  grave.  Even  as  late  as  1826  the  ministerial  associations 
of  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  provided  wine  and  liquor  for  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  clergy. 

And  once  the  great  temperance  movement  was  inaugurated,  it 
began  as  regulation,  and  not  as  prohibition.  The  earliest  printed 
temperance  pledge  that  has  come  down  to  us  includes  two  clauses: 
i.  No  member  shall  drink  rum  under  penalty  of  25  cents.  2.  No 
member  shall  be  intoxicated  under  penalty  of  50  cents.  When 
total  abstinence  was  proposed  men  received  it  with  scorn  and  jeers, 
and  the  total  abstainer  became  almost  an  outcast.  When  one  of 
the  early  founders  of  a  temperance  society  in  Vermont  refused 
liquor  to  the  neighbors  who  were  helping  him  raise  his  new  barn, 
his  friends  dropped  their  tools  and  refused  their  service,  and 
although  the  total  abstainer  scoured  the  town  for  helpers  he  was 
unable  to  secure  laborers  until  he  furnished  the  usual  liquors. 
Angry  at  this  temperance  fanatic,  one  old  gentleman  exclaimed: 
"How  bigoted  is  this  abstainer;  unless  checked  such  fanaticism 
will  ruin  the  country,  and  break  up  the  Democratic  party  " —  which 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  367 

must  not  be  interpreted  as  meaning  that  the  Republicans  drank 

less  heavily Frances  Willard  was  an  orator  as 

well  as  an  organizer.  Doubtless  those  who  dwell  in  great  cities  and 
have  only  heard  her  speak  in  great  halls  holding  two  or  three 
thousand  people  can  have  little  conception  of  her  genius  for  public 
speech.  In  the  very  nature  of  the  case  she  did  not  have  a  voice 
like  Webster  or  Beecher,  whose  tones  in  times  of  great  excitement 
made  the  windows  to  rattle,  while  some  said,  « '  It  thunders. " 

Her  greatest  oratorical  triumphs  were  in  villages  and  cities, 
where  some  hall  not  holding  more  than  a  thousand  people  was 
crowded  with  appreciative  listeners.  At  such  times  she  stood  forth 
one  of  the  most  gifted  speakers  of  this  generation,  achieving  efforts 
that  were  truly  amazing.  What  ease  and  grace  of  bearing !  What 
gentleness  and  strength!  What  pathos  and  sympathy!  How 
exquisitely  modulated  her  words !  If  her  speech  did  not  flow  as  a 
gulf  stream,  if  it  did  not  beat  like  an  ocean  upon  a  continent,  she 
sent  her  sentences  forth,  an  arrowy  flight,  and  each  tipped  with 
divine  fire.  Those  students  of  great  orators  who  have  lingered 
long  over  the  masterpieces  of  politics  and  reform  are  those  who 
have  most  admired  the  oratorical  method  Frances  Willard  devel- 
oped upon  the  platform.  What  a  world  of  meaning  she  crowded 
into  some  of  her  epigrams,  like,  ' '  The  golden  rule  of  Christ  will 
bring  the  golden  age  to  man."  When  the  distinguished  philan- 
thropists and  reformers  and  citizens  of  England  assembled  in  the 
City  Temple  of  London  to  give  her  a  reception  and  heaped  upon 
her  the  highest  honors,  those  of  us  who  listened  to  her  response 
knew  that  her  reserves  of  character  were  vast  indeed.  With  what 
simplicity  and  modesty  did  she  decline  all  praise,  insisting  that  she 
received  these  honors  simply  in  the  name  of  the  women  of  America, 
for  whom  England  intended  them. 

In  that  time  of  strained  political  relations  between  the  two 
nations,  with  what  fine  patriotism  did  she  speak  of  her  flag,  saying, 
' '  I  am  first  a  Christian,  then  I  am  a  Saxon,  then  I  am  an  American, 
and  when  I  get  home  to  Heaven  I  expect  to  register  from  Evanston. " 
To  organize  a  great  political  machine  that  represents  the  Republican 


368  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

or  Democratic  party,  where  cities  and  countries  and  States  are  all 
related  as  wheel  to  wheel,  requires  the  skill  of  tens  of  thousands  of 
expert  politicians,  toiling  ceaselessly.  But  beginning  with  nothing, 
in  twenty  years,  single-handed,  this  woman  organized  the  women 
of  her  country  into  a  vast  mechanism  that  extended  to  village  and 
city  and  State  and  nation  and  to  foreign  lands,  with  machinery  for 
public  agitation,  a  system  of  temperance  journals  for  children  and 
youth,  for  securing  instruction  upon  the  nature  of  stimulants  in  the 
common  schools,  with  more  than  sixty  different  departments  and 
methods  of  activity!  The  measure  of  a  career  is  determined  by 
three  things:  First,  the  talent  that  ancestry  gives;  second,  the 
opportunity  that  events  offer;  third,  the  movements  that  the  mind 
and  will  conceive  and  compel.  Doubtless  for  Frances  Willard 
ancestry  bestowed  rare  gifts,  the  opportunity  was  unique,  but  that 
which  her  mind  and  heart  compelled  is  beyond  all  measurement. 
As  in  times  past  orators  have  used  the  names  Howard  and  Nightin- 
gale for  winging  their  words,  for  all  the  ages  to  come  editors  and 
publicists  and  speakers  will  hold  up  the  name  of  Willard  for  the 
stimulus  and  inspiration  of  generations  yet  unborn. 


FRANCES  E.  WILLARD 
ELIZABETH  STUART  PHELPS  WARD 

My  friendship  with  Miss  Willard  was  not  one  built  on  many 
meetings,  and  almost  always  when  I  saw  her  she  was  under 
the  pressure  of  the  eternal  need  to  ' '  move  on  "  beneath  which  a 
life  like  hers  must  be  lived.  Yet  when  I  say  that,  I  ask  myself, 
Was  there  any  other  life  really  like  hers  ?  To  the  qualities  shared 
in  common  with  other  dedicated  souls  she  added  those  of  a  unique 
personality.  The  last  winter  that  she  spent  in  Boston  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  seeing  her  several  times  under  conditions  when  I  was 
impressed  with  a  side  of  her  nature  of  which  I  had  known  little  or 
nothing  before.  Her  social  quality  I  found  brilliant  and  charming; 
and  these  twain  are  not  always  one.  She  delighted  us  as  a  guest 
or  as  a  hostess ;  from  every  point  of  view  she  had  the  grace  and 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  369 

the  wit  to  have  illuminated  society  had  she  chosen  that  narrower 
world.  She  might  have  decorated  a  salon  had  she  not  elected  to 
honor  the  sturdier  larger  life  into  which  the  society  woman  can- 
not enter.  She  had  a  singularly  childlike  nature  —  spontaneous, 
appealing  and  sweet.  Yet  she  had  a  fine  tact,  cultivated  to  the 
point  of  an  inspired  diplomacy. 

As  a  reformer,  Miss  Willard  always  seemed  to  me  a  power  by 
herself  that  made  for  righteousness  in  nobody's  way  but  her  own. 
I  did  not  always  agree  with  her;  I  could  not  always  follow  her 
methods ;  but  I  always  honored  and  admired  her. 

As  a  moral  power  she  worked  like  a  Hebrew  prophet  as  God 
bade  her,  or  as  she  believed  He  bade  her,  and  there  was  nothing  to 
do  but  let  her  have  her  way  —  or  His. 

She  performed  a  work  for  which  remarkable  is  a  poor  adjec- 
tive. She  was  an  orator  whose  gift  could  not  be  questioned  by  her 
coldest  critic;  she  was  a  student,  a  thinker,  an  organizer  of  an 
order  which  we  shall  rate  more  highly,  not  less  so,  as  time  pre- 
pares to  classify  her  in  its  unerring  catalogue. 

It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  we  have  never  yet  sufficiently 
estimated  Frances  Willard  as  an  intellect.  Hers  was  strong  and 
cultivated,  and  in  proportion  to  its  strength  and  culture  her  ethical 
purpose  got  its  grip  on  her  times.  Dedication  without  equipment 
could  never  have  done  her  work.  Spirituality  without  intellectu- 
ality could  not  have  moved  the  forces  which  obeyed  the  motions 
of  her  beautiful  white  hand.  In  the  history  of  moral  progress  — 
brilliant,  gentle,  ever  powerful,  but  ever  womanly  —  she  will  long 
illustrate  the  value  of  educated  consecration. 

I  have  thought  that  the  most  memorable  thing  about  Miss 
Willard's  career  as  a  reformer  was  its  freedom  from  bitterness;  she 
had  extraordinary  gentleness  of  soul  toward  all  mankind.  No  evil 
was  so  black  but  that  she  credited  every  good  quality  she  could  to 
its  champions ;  she  always  took  her  opponents  at  their  best  —  they 
must  have  hung  their  heads  for  shame  sometimes  at  the  ideals  of 
themselves  which  her  eloquent  sweetness  held  up  before  them  and 
before  the  world. 


24 


370  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

A  pretty  story  is  told  of  her  being  found  in  conversation  one 
day  with  the  highest  titled  ecclesiastical  dignitary  in  England,  to 
whom  she  was  earnestly  saying,  to  the  surprise  of  his  Lordship  and 
a  little  to  the  anxiety  of  her  friends,  ' '  But  my  dear  brother  " —  That 
naive  gentleness  was  always  ready  for  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
men.  The  lowest  rumseller  was  her  ' '  dear  brother, "  and  though 
she  would  ruin  his  devil's  business  if  she  could,  she  would  treat  him 
like  a  man  who  had  always  wanted  to  go  into  a  celestial  one,  and 
had  only  waited  for  her  to  come  along  and  give  him  the  oppor- 
tunity. She  forgave  before  she  struck,  and  blessed  before  she 
punished. 

1  have  often  thought  that  her  work  indicated  a  kind  of  study 
of  the  methods  of  Christ  in  public  life  far  beyond  that  which  most 
of  us  give  to  His  mind  and  heart. 

She  was  a  Christian  queen.     She  leaves  a  vacant  throne. 


MEMORIES   OF   FRANCES   E.    WILLARD 
REV.   THEO.   L.   CUYLER,   D.D  ,  LL.D. 

The  best-known  woman  in  America,  probably,  since  the  death 
of  Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  was  that  tireless  reformer  and 
philanthropist  whose  busy  life  closed  in  New  York,  on  Thursday 
night,  the  i7th  of  February.  Miss  Frances  E.  Willard  began  a 
career  which  made  her  known  over  the  whole  civilized  world  under 
the  best  auspices.  She  came  of  a  goodly  Puritan  stock,  and  of  a 
mother  of  such  rare  beauty  of  character  that  she  wrote  her  biog- 
raphy under  the  descriptive  title  of  "A  Great  Mother. " 

Native  genius  of  a  high  order,  wide  and  splendid  culture,  and 
a  warm  woman's  heart  were  her  grand  outfit  when  she  began  her 
career  as  the  apostle  of  temperance  and  social  purity  in  1874. 

I  first  saw  Miss  Willard  in  Boston  when  she  was  the  secretary 
of  the  National  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  and  was 
traveling  over  the  land,  organizing  new  branches  of  the  Union,  and 
arousing  people  everywhere  by  her  electric  eloquence.  Mr.  Moody 
was  holding  revival  meetings  in  Boston  in  April,  1877,  with  Miss 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES—  TRIBUTES  371 

Willard  as  his  associate.  Together  they  arranged  an  immense 
temperance  demonstration  for  the  2oth  of  that  month,  which 
which  was  to  continue  through  the  whole  day,  and  be  addressed  by 
eminent  speakers  from  all  quarters.  This  great  convention  was 
held  in  the  Tabernacle,  and  attended  by  over  five  thousand  people. 
I  never  shall  forget  that  day;  the  spiritual  feeling  was  intense  and 
the  platform  of  that  convention  was  kept  up  to  white  heat  from  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning  until  almost  midnight.  I  do  not  now  recall 
all  the  speakers,  but  among  them  were  the  fiery-hearted  George  H. 
Stuart,  of  Philadelphia;  John  Wanamaker,  William  E.  Dodge, 
Rev.  A.  J.  Gordon  and  John  B.  Gough,  then  in  his  full  strength  as 
the  king  of  all  temperance  orators  in  the  world.  When  the  great 
meeting  closed  one  of  the  other  speakers  said  to  me:  "Well,  the 
woman  has  beaten  us  all;  Miss  Willard's  was  the  speech  of  the 
whole  day." 

He  was  right  in  that  estimate  of  her  arousing,  incisive,  trench- 
ant, tender,  evangelical  and  spirit-filled  oration.  It  was  Christian 
temperance,  based  on  God's  Word,  and  fired  with  the  holy  fire  of 
Pentecost.  It  smote  drunkenness  as  a  sin,  and  the  drink  usages  as 
a  curse,  and  drink-selling  as  a  crime,  and  it  pleaded  for  the  salva- 
tion of  tempted  souls  with  all  the  tenderness  of  a  great  woman's 
heart.  That  magnificent  address  was  one  of  the  master  efforts  of 
Miss  Willard's  life,  and  I  have  wished  a  thousand  times  that  she 
had  spent  more  of  the  remaining  twenty  years  of  her  earnest  and 
zealous  life  in  working  on  the  same  lines  that  she  worked  that  day 
in  Boston.  This  nation  has,  of  late,  been  hearing  little  else  than 
the  civil  and  political  side  of  the  liquor  traffic;  she  struck  deeper 
that  day,  and  exposed  the  deadly  and  damning  evils  of  the  drink 
usages  whenever  and  wherever  found  —  in  society  as  well  as  in  the 
saloon. 

Her  grand,  inspiring  and  unselfish  career  of  untiring  toil  — 
with  eloquent  tongue  and  brilliant  pen  —  for  the  deliverance  of  men 
from  intemperance  and  women  from  impurity,  has  come  to  its 
glorious  close.  The  voice  of  criticism  is  lost  in  the  voice  of  grateful 
admiration;  no  differences  of  judgment  as  to  the  methods  of  pro- 


372  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

moting  the  reform  we  both  loved  ever  disturbed  the  sincerity  of  our 
friendship.  Over  her  newly  opened  tomb  let  us  bespeak  a  closer 
union  and  a  more  earnest  co-operation  among  all  those  who  are 
fighting  those  twin  curses  which  Frances  Elizabeth  Willard  fought 
so  fearlessly  until  she  went  up  to  her  resplendent  crown.  Her 
' '  White  Cross "  is  a  beautiful  emblem  of  her  pure,  saintly  life. 
One  of  her  last  speeches  as  President  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  was  an 
appeal  for  a  fresh  campaign  for  total  abstinence  as  the  basal  prin- 
ciple of  our  great  reform.  Let  her  beloved  comrade,  Lady  Henry 
Somerset,  grasp  the  banner  that  has  fallen  from  Frances  Willard's 
dying  hand  and  lead  the  good  women  on  both  sides  of  the  sea 
forward! 


CHARACTER   SKETCH 
MARY  A.   LATHBURY 

It  is  a  temptation  to  those  who  have  known  Frances  Willard 
in  the  intimacies  of  a  personal  friendship,  to  bring  out  the  treas- 
ures that  they  have  gathered  from  so  rich  a  life  and  give  them  to 
the  world.  There  would  be  no  disloyalty  in  so  doing,  for  Miss 
Willard's  nature  was  as  wide  open  toward  all  the  world  as  it  was 
toward  heaven.  With  the  temptation,  however,  there  falls  that 
restraining  touch  upon  the  spirit  that  makes  it  impossible  to 
speak  freely  to  others  of  a  friend  while  that  friend  sits  beside 
you. 

I  have  yielded  to  this  feeling  until  only  a  few  hours  remain 
before  this  book  will  go  to  press.  What  can  I  say  of  her  whom 
death  has  not  touched  —  who  lives  beside  us  more  than  ever  alive, 
and  who,  with  her  Lord,  is  alive  forevermore  ?  I  have  no  sympa- 
thy with  the  cult  that  encourages  attempts  at  intercourse  with  those 
who  have  passed  into  the  spiritual  world.  ' '  He  that  openeth  and 
no  man  shutteth,  and  shutteth  and  no  man  openeth,"  alone 
holds  the  key;  but  that  the  spiritual  world  lies  about  the  natural  as 
the  air  lies  about  the  earth  and  lives  within  it  as  the  soul  lives  in 
the  body,  I  have  no  doubt. 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES —TRIBUTES  373 

' '  I  think,  therefore,  I  am  a  spirit, "  said  a  great  preacher. 
Frances  Willard  thought  she  was  a  spirit.  Men  and  women  are 
trying  to  think  after  her  the  thoughts  of  love,  peace  and  good  will 
toward  men  that  God  had  given  her;  and  now,  free  from  the  confin- 
ing walls  of  the  body,  and  in  closer  touch  with  all  heaven,  she  still 
thinks  the  thoughts  of  God,  and  by  ways  we  need  not  disturb  our- 
selves to  understand.  They  are  ours.  The  women  who 

"  Built  beside  her  day  by  day, 
The  fair  ascents  of  God's  highway," 

and  who  lovingly  resolve  to  "do  more  than  ever  now, "  believe  in 
their  hearts  that  love  and  memory  inspire  the  thought.  Is  that 
wholly  true? 

The  timid  soul  who  has  always  shunned  publicity,  and  who, 
pausing  before  some  great  opportunity  to  do  good,  hears  that  clear, 
vibrant  voice  saying,  "Enter  every  open  door;  that  is  what  mother 
used  to  say, "  believes  that  it  is  a  memory  —  an  echo  from  that  day 
on  which  she  heard  it  at  convention.  Is  it? 

Miss  Willard  was  a  willing  and  eager  recipient  of  life.  She 
possessed  life  more  abundantly  than  the  most  of  us,  and  doubled 
it  constantly  by  giving  it  out  to  others.  She  has  left  herself,  as 
far  as  she  was  able,  as  a  legacy  to  humanity.  But  now,  set  free 
from  the  limitations  of  the  body,  and  serving  among  the  heavenly 
forces  that  work  for  the  regeneration  of  the  world,  her  field  has 
enlarged  infinitely.  The  life  that  widened  from  that  of  a  teacher 
with  her  girls  to  that  of  a  reformer  with  her  world  has  not  been 
narrowed  by  passing  into  larger  life  and  opportunities.  She  is 
a  part  of  the  life  of  today,  and  wherever  men  and  women  are  at 
work  building  the  walls  of  civic  or  national  righteousness;  wherever 

o  o 

they  are  sowing  the  seed  of  love,  peace  and  purity,  or  wherever 
they  are  together  laying  the  foundation  of  the  home,  they  may 
know  that  Frances  Willard  walks  and  works  beside  them,  giving 
herself,  as  by  a  divine  law  she  must,  to  the  bringing  in  of  the  king- 
dom of  Christ. 

One  may  almost  hear  her  low,   bell-like  voice  repeating  the 


374  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

prophetic   lines   with    which    she    closed    a   convention    memorial 

service : 

"  Forever  near  us,  though  unseen, 

The  dear  immortal  spirits  tread; 
For  all  the  boundless  universe 
Is  life  —  there  are  no  dead ! ' ' 

She  was  —  she  is  an  immortal  spirit  —  a  cup  running  over  with 
the  Lord's  life,  and  ' '  all  that  life  is  love. "  Is  it  strange  that  she 
drops  into  the  heart  of  one  a  desire  to  "do  more  than  ever  now, " 
and  stoops  to  whisper  to  another,  ' '  Enter  every  open  door  "  ?  It 
would  be  still  more  strange  if  the  soul  of  Frances  Willard  had 
ceased  to  be  what  she  has  long  been  —  a  servant  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. 


FRANCES  E.  WILLARD  AS  A  REFORMER 
JOSEPH  COOK 

The  world  seems  lonely  without  Miss  Willard.  One  feels 
exposed  and  unprotected  in  the  field  of  reform  now  that  she  is  no 
longer  on  guard.  Since  the  cessation  of  Mrs.  Stowe's  chief  public 
activity  no  woman  in  America  has  been  a  more  important  leader 
in  the  moral,  educational  and  political  defense  of  the  home  and 
society  from  their  chief  foes  than  Miss  Willard.  A  large  number 
of  vital  and  correlated  reforms  had  her  life-long  championship. 
The  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  of  which  she  was 
president  for  so  many  years,  owes  chiefly  to  her  its  lofty  temper- 
ance principles,  its  cosmopolitan  range  of  organization,  its  variety 
and  timeliness  of  subsidiary  efforts,  the  courage  and  sometimes  the 
audacity  of  its  political  agitation,  and  its  pervasive  and  triumphant 
Christian  spirit.  The  association  is  many  sided.  Like  Briareus 
it  has  a  hundred  arms,  and  like  Argus  a  hundred  eyes,  but  in  all  this 
is  only  the  reflex  of  the  spirit  of  its  chief  organizer  and  leader. 

She  died  as  president  of  both  the  World's  and  the  National 
Christian  Temperance  Unions,  and,  up  to  the  very  last,  exhibited 
in  her  addresses,  public  letters  and  almost  countless  official  com- 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES—  TRIBUTES  375 

munications,  the  same  astonishing  versatility  and  vigor  which  char- 
acterized her  earlier  career.  Temperance,  equal  suffrage,  social 
purity,  labor  reform,  Turkish  atrocities,  Hindu  widows,  and  what- 
ever other  topics  closely  touched  social  amelioration  in  any  form, 
commanded  her  most  zealous  interest,  and,  through  her,  that  of  the 
organized  host  of  women  she  led.  We  have  heard  much  of  Napo- 
leon and  his  marshals,  of  Washington  and  his  generals,  and  we 
ought  to  hear  much  of  Miss  Willard  and  her  coadjutors,  who  have 
together  encircled  the  globe  with  agitation  for  the  defense  of  woman 
and  the  home.  Some  of  the  national  superintendents  of  depart- 
ments in  the  organization,  as  well  as  the  round-the-world  temper- 
ance missionaries,  have  achieved  great  results.  Miss  Willard  has 
been  criticised  for  entering  too  many  departments  of  reform,  but 
she  has  exhibited  a  singular  sagacity  in  discovering  leaders  for 
these  various  departments  and  preserving  their  harmony  and 
efficiency. 

Her  own  activity  has  indeed  been  marvelous,  but  her  capacity 
as  an  organizer  of  the  labors  of  others  has  also  been  amazing.  It 
has  been  well  said  that  if  any  man  had  done  in  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century  what  Miss  Willard  has  accomplished,  his  success 
would  have  been  regarded  as  phenomenal,  and  his  capacity  and 
career  among  the  marvels  of  modern  times.  As  a  lecturer,  editor, 
preacher,  author,  presiding  officer,  correspondent,  traveler,  Miss 
Willard  had  brilliant  qualities  which  were  tested  through  a  quarter 
of  a  century  in  the  severest  way  and  never  found  wanting.  But 
perhaps  her  ability  as  an  organizer  and  leader  and  inspiration  of 
Christian  aggressiveness  in  broadening  woman's  sphere  was  her 
most  precious  and  memorable  endowment. 

President  Willard,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  heads  of  Har- 
vard University,  was  among  Miss  Willard 's  ancestors.  His  marble 
bust  in  the  college  library  and  hers,  if  placed  side  by  side,  would 
be  seen  to  exhibit  extraordinary  similarities.  They  have  the  same 
highly  intellectual  and  alert  expression,  the  same  remarkable  sym- 
metry and  height  of  cranial  contour,  except  that  Miss  Willard  has 
the  loftier  coronal  dome.  Great  spiritual  genius  has  often  been 


376  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

found  in  high  heads,  as  in  Shakespeare,  Walter  Scott,  Tennyson, 
Richter,  and  not  in  low  heads  like  those  of  Renan  and  Matthew 
Arnold.  Whoever  sees  a  profile  view  of  Miss  Willard's  head  with 
the  hair  so  arranged  as  to  show  its  outline  will  be  reminded  of  the 
height  and  symmetry  of  this  same  region  in  Mrs.  Browning  and 
Mrs.  Stowe  and  in  the  famous  Naples  bust  of  Plato. 

In  spite  of  the  many  conflicts  to  which  her  principles  exposed 
her,  she  died  at  peace  with  all  the  world  without  compromise  of  a 
single  one  of  her  highest  contentions  and  without  bitterness.  She 
had  wonderfully  intense  attachments  to  personal  friends  and  made 
almost  a  religion  of  family  affections. 

She  is  at  home  at  last  among  her  kindred,  and  beckons  us 
onward,  upward,  heavenward.  Her  last  words  were,  ' '  How  beau- 
tiful it  is  to  be  with  God."  And  this  was  true  in  her  life  as  well  as 
in  death  and  beyond  death.  It  must  be  said,  with  devout  thankful- 
ness to  Almighty  Providence,  that  she  fought  a  good  fight  and  kept 
the  faith  and  finished  her  work.  In  sober  reality  she  was,  in  a  sense 
very  intelligible  to  thoughtful  souls  contemplating  her  whole  career, 
a  pillar  of  fire  through  which  God  looked  in  the  morning  watch  of 
better  ages  to  come  and  troubled  the  hosts  of  His  enemies  and  took 
off  their  chariot  wheels. 

All  just  reforms  are  God's  abode,  and  His  eyes  neither  slumber 
nor  sleep. 

Newton  Center,  Mass. 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  377 

TRIBUTES 

messages  were  received  by  wire  and  post 
expressing  a  sense  of  profound  sorrow,  and  proving  the 
unique  place  Miss  Willard  held  in  the  hearts  of  the 
people.  Each  State  and  Territorial  auxiliary  of  the  National 
W.  C.  T.  U.  was  represented  by  its  President  or  General  Officers, 
while  the  entire  Board  of  National  Superintendents,  Evangelists, 
Organizers  and  Lecturers  sent  tender  words  of  condolence,  hun- 
dreds of  District,  County  and  local  unions  forwarded  resolutions, 
and  almost  numberless  were  the  heart-broken  messages  which 
came  from  individual  White-Ribboners. 

Cablegrams  from  Great  Britain  and  Australia  and  telegrams 
from  Canada,  coming  with  the  first  daylight  that  dawned  on  a 
world  grown  suddenly  dark  to  many  hearts,  were  followed  by 
letters  from  the  entire  circle  of  countries  in  the  World's  W.  C. 
T.  U. 

From  the  most  distant  leaders  came  pathetic  letters  burdened 
with  grief  that  they  could  never  see  the  face  of  one  for  whose 
coming  they  had  long  and  lovingly  waited. 

In  addition  to  these  official  and  semi-official  communications, 
a  great  number  of  temperance,  religious,  philanthropic,  labor, 
educational  and  business  organizations  paid  heartfelt  tributes  of 
admiration  and  esteem,  and  expressed  their  grief  at  the  loss 
of  Frances  E.  Willard.  Among  these  societies  were  the  National 
Council  of  Women,  the  National  Temperance  Society,  the 
National  Woman's  Suffrage  Association,  the  United  Society  of 
Christian  Endeavor,  the  International  Order  of  the  King's  Daugh- 
ters, the  International  Board  of  the  Young  Women's  Christian 
Association,  the  Catholic  Total  Abstinence  Union,  the  Father 
Mathew  Total  Abstinence  Society,  the  International  Supreme 
Lodge  Independent  Order  of  Good  Templars,  the  National  Anti- 
Mob  and  Lynch  Law  Association,  the  National  Christian  League 
for  the  Promotion  of  Social  Purity,  the  Faculty  of  Chicago  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  the  Faculty  of  Wellesley  College,  the  Chicago 


378  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Congregational  Union,  Women's  Clubs  and  Preachers'  Meetings 
in  various  cities;  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  the  Uni- 
versal Peace  Union,  the  Knights  of  Labor,  the  Council  of  Jewish 
Women,  the  Women's  Board  of  Missions,  the  Daughters  of  the 
American  Revolution,  the  National  Society  of  New  England 
Women,  the  Women's  Relief  Corps,  the  Association  of  Collegiate 
Alumnae,  the  Order  of  the  Maccabees  of  the  World  and  the 
American  Humane  Education  Society. 

We  append  but  a  few  of  the  individual  messages  received, 
selecting  largely  from  those  outside  the  ranks  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U., 
since  the  words  of  love  of  White-Ribboners  alone  would  more  than 
fill  this  memorial  volume.  Three  hundred  thousand  stricken  yet 
strong-hearted  followers  of  Frances  E.  Willard  form  her  best 
memorial,  the  truest  exponent  of  her  character;  a  choir  ever 
visible,  ever  voicing  itself  in  larger,  deeper,  more  vital  activities 
until  they  greet, 

"  When  the  last  deep  is  crossed, 
The  tender  face  they  miss  but  have  not  lost." 


It  is  difficult  to  find  suitable  expressions  for  the  emotions  of  the  heart  when 
one  like  our  matchless  leader,  our  true  and  tender  friend,  Frances  E.  Willard,  is 
taken  from  our  earthly  vision.  But  we  can  dwell  upon  the  elements  of  her  char- 
acter, and  as  we  meditate  upon  the  Beatitudes  of  our  divine  Master  we  may  well 
rejoice  in  the  fact  that  she  so  fully  exemplified  their  possibilities. 

Miss  Willard' s  unusual  qualities  of  mind,  her  gentleness  of  heart,  her  charity 
and  her  firmness  of  principle,  together  with  her  attractive  personality,  constituted 
her  a  power  around  which  the  good  women  of  this  and  other  lands  naturally 
centered.  The  first  time  I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  her  was  at  the  first  National 
Convention,  in  November,  1874.  Knowing  her  high  position  in  the  educational 
world,  and  lacking  a  formal  introduction,  I  hesitated  to  approach  her;  but  I 
wished  that  she  could  realize  what  I  felt  of  loving  sympathy,  gratitude  and  admi- 
ration for  her  position  and  for  the  consecration  of  her  abilities  to  the  temperance 
cause  and  the  service  of  humanity.  In  view  of  her  natural  and  acquired  graces 
of  mind  and  soul,  I  felt  that  a  great  power  had  entered  our  ranks. 

On  the  second  day  of  the  convention  I  was  invited  to  dine  with  a  friend.  I 
gladly  accepted,  little  dreaming  of  the  charming  surprise  that  awaited  me.  Upon 
entering  the  drawing-room  of  my  friend,  Miss  Willard  was  introduced  to  me.  In 
her  own  sweet  way  she  said,  ' '  I  am  glad  of  this  opportunity  to  have  a  quiet  talk 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES—  TRIBUTES  379 

with  you  about  this  wonderful  Crusade.  Let  us  sit  right  down  together  without 
formality,  and  talk  over  the  Hillsboro  part  of  it  until  dinner  is  ready." 

Another  charming  episode  in  our  golden  chain  of  love  and  sympathy  — 
which  never  had  a  broken  link  — was  Miss  Willard's  first  visit  at  our  home.  It 
was  there  that  I  learned  her  wonderful  power  of  appreciating  what  interested 
others.  I  remember  her  expressions  of  pleasure  in  the  reminiscences  of  my  life, 
and  of  the  lives  of  my  dear  parents  and  others. 

But  words  are  powerless  to  convey  my  appreciation  of  her  worth.  She  was 
in  most  loving  and  sympathetic  relations  with  me  in  all  the  joys  and  sorrows  of 
my  checkered  life  ;  they  never  seemed  to  pass  unnoticed  by  this  leader,  friend 
and  sister.  But  her  crowning  virtue  was  that  humanity  born  from  above,  and 
akin  to  that  of  her  Master,  the  "light  of  the  city"  where  she  now  dwells.  Her 
blessed  influence  is  still  felt,  only  on  a  higher  and  holier  plane. 

Hillsboro,  Ohio.  ELIZA  J.  THOMPSON. 


We  old  veterans  claimed  Frances  Willard  as  our  daughter,  born  of  the 
inspiration  that  developed  the  women  of  the  Crusade  by  the  baptism  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  when  the  Lord  called  them  to  march  the  streets  and  pray  in  the  saloons. 

I  was  early  impressed  that  our  young  women  must  be  enlisted,  or  the 
ultimate  hope  of  our  work  would  prove  futile.  Where  should  we  find  a  leader 
with  sufficient  social  standing,  mental  and  spiritual  force  to  lure  our  great  army 
of  young  women  into  our  ranks  ? 

The  Lord  was  not  unmindful  of  our  need,  for  even  then  he  had  his  hand 
upon  one  whom  he  was  preparing,  through  testing  discipline,  to  become  the 
greatest  leader  of  women  the  world  has  ever  known. 

She  was  a  teacher  of  marked  ability,  well  beloved  by  her  students,  giving 
every  energy  of  her  enthusiastic  nature  to  what  she  believed  to  be  her  lifework, 
when,  by  a  strange  wrench,  the  bitterest  experience  of  her  life  as  she  felt  it,  she 
found  her  hand  empty,  she  knew  not  where  to  turn. 

How  could  she  know  that  He  was  taking  her  from  the  circumscribed  pro- 
fessor's desk  co  the  broadest,  most  far-reaching  platform  ever  occupied  by  any 
woman  in  the  world  before;  that  He  was  thus  leading  her  to  her  kingdom  to 
which  He  had  called  her  for  such  a  time  as  these  latter  days. 

She  could  not  know  that  such  trial  was  intended  to  develop  the  latent 
powers  of  brain  and  heart  with  which  He  had  endowed  her,  but  of  which  she  was 
as  yet  unconscious.  But  the  time  came,  the  door  was  opened.  On  the  8th  of 
October,  1874,  she  was  elected  President  of  the  Chicago  Union,  and  on  the  2Oth 
she  wrote  me  to  come  and  help  her  arouse  and  enlist  the  Christian  women  of 
Chicago  to  take  up  arms  against  the  liquor  curse. 

With  what  eagerness  I  responded  to  her  call  may  be  understood.     In  a  few 


380  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

days  after  I  was  with  her.  I  found  her  devoting  all  her  time  and  powers  to  her 
work,  drawing  not  only  a  large  class  of  elect  ladies  to  her  side,  but  daily  might 
be  seen  men,  old  and  young,  coming  to  her  prayer  meetings,  as  if  fleeing  to  the 
city  of  refuge  for  protection  and  deliverance  from  their  deadly  enemy.  In  a  few 
more  days  we  met  again  at  our  first  National  Convention  in  Cleveland.  She  was 
made  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Resolutions  and  Plan  of  Work,  and  chosen 
secretary  of  the  committee.  She  was  elected  Corresponding  Secretary  of  our 
National  Union  at  this  convention. 

In  all  the  years  that  have  followed  she  has  proved  her  earnest  devotion  (ah, 
yes,  even  to  the  laying  down  of  her  life!)  and  wonderful  powers  in  charming  and 
drawing  everyone  to  her  and  inspiring  them  with  enthusiasm  for  our  blessed 
work.  As  she  said  of  our  Prohibition  hero,  Would  that  the  great  space  she 
has  left  empty  and  lonely  might  be  peopled  with  forms  fair  and  brave  of  our  youth 
and  maidens  ready  to  let  it  be  understood  of  them  from  this  time  forth  that  they 
are  not  only  content,  but  proud  that  their  names,  as  that  of  Frances  E.  Willard, 
are  "writ  in  water."  MOTHER  STEWART. 

Springfield,  Ohio,  April  16,  1898. 


It  is  not  easy  to  realize  that  Frances  Willard  has  gone  from  us  forever  —  nor 
is  it  possible  to  measure  the  great  loss  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  has  sustained. 

My  acquaintance  with  Miss  Willard  antedated  her  connection  with  the 
temperance  reform  —  antedated,  indeed,  the  organization  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U. 
Her  devotion  to  this  organization  has  never  abated,  yet  she  has  always  been 
prompt  to  join  hands  with  all  who  worked  for  humanity,  and  to  give  her  speech 
and  influence  in  behalf  of  what  she  believed  to  be  right,  even  when  she  risked  her 
popularity  in  so  doing.  She  surpassed  all  women  of  modern  times  as  a  leader, 
and  was  so  magnetic  and  executive,  so  persistent  and  winning,  that  she  has  fused 
and  molded  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  into  a  strong  solidarity.  Deeply  religious,  she  was 
not  a  bigot,  but  accorded  to  others  the  same  religious  freedom  she  demanded  for 
herself,  and  cared  more  for  life  and  character  than  for  creed.  Possessed  of 
splendid  moral  courage,  she  could  have  gone  unflinchingly  to  death  for  her  cause 
had  it  been  demanded  of  her.  She  loved  the  human  race  with  a  divine  affection, 
sorrowing  over  its  woes,  which  she  sought  to  mitigate,  and  rejoicing  in  every 
advance  it  made.  She  was  unselfish,  even  to  the  utter  neglect  of  her  own  inter- 
ests, continuing  to  work  without  compensation  till  her  friends  compelled  her  to  be 
more  just  to  herself. 

She  was  an  orator  who  enchained  thousands;  a  writer  whose  printed  speech 
was  frequently  like  the  blast  of  a  bugle  summoning  to  duty;  a  charming  person- 
ality, to  whom  attractive  paths  opened  in  every  direction.  But  she  gave  herself 
to  her  work  with  all  that  she  was,  or  had,  or  hoped  to  be  or  to  have,  with  complete 
unreserve. 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  381 

It  does  not  seem  possible  that  the  heavens  have  "received  her  out  of  our 
sight, ' '  and  that  we  shall  no  more  behold  her  till  we,  too,  lift  the  latch  and  pass 
into  that  other  chamber  of  the  King,  larger  than  this  and  lovelier.  It  has  never 
been  so  hard  before  to  say,  "  Thy  will  be  done."  How  can  we  go  on  without 
her?  MARY  A.  LIVERMORE. 

Melrose,  Mass. 

In  1891  the  Congress  Auxiliary  in  connection  with  the  Columbian  Exposition 
began  its  labors  preliminary  to  the  Congresses  to  be  held  in  1893,  and  Miss  Wil- 
lard  was  a  member  of  the  Committee  for  the  Congress  of  Representative  Women. 
Lady  Henry  Somerset  was  visiting  Miss  Willard  at  that  time  and  I  held  various 
conferences  with  them  regarding  speakers  in  Europe  and  also  in  this  country,  and 
they  gave  me  most  valuable  suggestions  both  for  the  programmes  and  also  for  the 
speakers.  I  was  impressed  by  Miss  Willard' s  versatility  ;  she  was  equally  at 
home  with  the  practical  woman  of  affairs  and  with  the  idealist,  and  interested  in 
both  points  of  view.  She  had  a  perfect  apprehension  of  the  scope  of  the  work 
and  the  results  which  would  ensue  from  the  broad-minded  policy  which  was 
pursued  by  everyone  connected  with  that  great  series  of  meetings. 

Miss  Willard  was  very  simple  in  manner,  was  direct,  and  had  a  reserve  power 
both  in  conversation  and  in  public  speaking  which  was  marked.  This  quiet  man- 
ner gave  her  great  dignity  and  fitted  her  to  be  at  home  either  on  the  platform  or 
the  drawing-room. 

I  have  selected  this  phase  of  Miss  Willard' s  character —  her  adaptability  —  to 
show  how  general  were  her  sympathies  and  how  eager  her  interest  in  all  that  tends 
to  the  advancement  of  mankind. 

Chicago.  ELLEN  M.  HENROTIN, 

President  of  the  National  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs. 


Miss  Willard  has  commanded  and  has  deserved  the  love  and  respect  of 
millions  of  the  women  of  this  country.  With  unanimous  loyalty,  enthusiastic 
wherever  they  could  express  it,  they  chose  her  every  year  to  be  the  president  of 
their  great  temperance  organization,  whose  work  under  her  leadership  has 
been  extraordinary.  Its  history  thus  far  has  been  the  same  thing  as  the  biog- 
raphy of  Frances  Willard.  That  history  is  not  simply  a  narrative  of  a  noble  life. 
It  is  an  important  illustration  of  wise  administration.  Her  annual  messages  to  her 
constituents  are  better  worth  reading  than  the  messages  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States  for  the  same  time.  They  were  messages  to  people  she  loved  and 
who  loved  her,  written  with  the  enthusiasm  of  love  letters  by  a  woman  singularly 
well  educated,  broad  in  her  whole  view  of  life,  and,  in  her  very  heart  and  in  every 
syllable  which  her  heart  prompted,  brave  and  true. 

Boston,  Mass.  REV.  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE,  D.D. 


382  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Judgment  of  Frances  Willard  was  impossible  when  one  was  close  to  her.  In 
that  respect  she  was  a  veritable  queen.  Judicial  process  will  not  lie  against  the 
sovereign,  and  she  was  royal  by  the  divinest  right  —  the  instant  and  persistent 
fealty  of  the  people  whom  it  was  her  quaint  way  to  call  ' '  Our  folks. ' ' 

Absent  from  her,  one  might  convict  her,  in  his  solitary  thought,  of  errors  of 
judgment,  or  even  find  it  possible  to  censure  her  a  little  —  much,  may  be.  But 
she  herself  was  not  to  be  critically  discerned,  and  when  she  slipped  serenely  into 
court  the  judiciary  melted  and  the  jury  "packed"  itself  spontaneously.  She 
would  have  been  very  dangerous  if  she  had  not  been  very  good. 

And  now  that  she  has  been  transfigured  before  our  eyes,  her  presence  seems 
even  more  imminent  than  before,  and  a  judicial  temper  toward  her  more  impos- 
sible. 

As  to  her  work,  there  is  absolutely  nothing  to  compare  it  to.  But  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  her  quarter  century  of  public  service  has  been  to  womankind  the 
greatest  gift  of  any  single  life  —  save  One. 

Chicago.  JOHN  G.  WOOLLEY. 


Of  this  blessed  ' '  daughter  of  The  King ' '  it  might  be  said  with  Solomon : 
' '  Many  daughters  have  done  virtuously,  but  thou  excellest  them  all. ' '  For  intel- 
lect and  eloquence  she  was  the  foremost  woman  of  her  generation.  Such  was 
the  breadth  of  her  catholicity  that  she  recognized  goodness  wherever  found.  Her 
philanthropy  touched  suffering  humanity  in  all  lands.  With  the  courage  of  an 
angel  in  her  soul,  she  stood  for  the  right  against  all  forms  of  wrong.  She  was 
insistent  for  sobriety  in  high  places  and  in  low,  and  demanded  the  majesty  of 
civil  law  against  the  evils  of  intemperance.  How  sublime  her  utterances  in  her 
vindication  of  the  rights  of  womanhood  against  the  civil  and  political  disabilities 
of  her  sex  in  all  lands.  How  persuasive  her  influence  for  the  elevation  of  home 
life,  wifehood  and  childhood  wherever  degraded.  Her  love  of  ' '  native  land ' ' 
was  only  excelled  by  her  loyal,  joyous  devotion  to  that  Divine  Christ  whose 
' '  Golden  Rule  can  bring  to  pass  the  Golden  Age  of  Man. ' '  Let  womanhood 
emulate  her  virtues,  imitate  her  example,  cherish  her  memory,  till  purity  and 
temperance  shall  become  coextensive  with  the  business  and  abode  of  humanity. 

(BISHOP)  JOHN  P.  NEWMAN. 


I  have  heard  many  women  —  women  who  have  achieved  greatness — but 
never  have  I  heard  one  who  was  so  finished  and  eloquent  as  the  dead  leader  of 
the  great  temperance  movement  among  women.  She  was  entitled  to  the  palm  of 
superiority.  Her  utterances  were  equal  to  those  of  the  American  Demosthenes, 
Wendell  Phillips.  There  was  but  one  Miss  Willard.  She  inspired  the  motto  of 
the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union — "  For  God,  and  Home,  and  Native 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  383 

Land  " — but  she  worked  for  God,  and  home,  and  every  land.  Miss  Willard  was 
a  leader  of  women.  She  is  worthy  to  rank  with  Jefferson,  for  she  formulated  a 
declaration  of  independence  for  her  sex. 

Chicago.  ( BISHOP)  SAMUEL  FALLOWS. 


Miss  Willard  was  one  of  the  purest  and  best  women  America  has  produced. 
She  was  endowed  by  nature  with  a  kind  heart  and  splendid  brain.  The  world  is 
better  by  far  because  of  her  lifework,  and  her  name  will  grow  brighter  as  the  tide 
of  time  rolls  on. 

Lexington,  Ky.  Gov.  W.  O.  BRADLEY. 

While  her  great  soul  was  forever  expanding  in  gratitude  to  God,  her  great 
heart  was  ever  reaching  out  in  helpfulness  to  humanity.  No  wonder  the  lowly 
gathered  about  her  casket  to  honor  the  woman,  in  the  belfry  of  whose  heart  the 
"  tender  tones  of  sympathy"  for  the  unfortunate  were  ever  ringing. 

Standing  by  her  casket  I  looked  upon  as  finely  cut  features  of  nobility  and 
greatness,  as  touching  traces  of  goodness  and  mercy  as  were  ever  portrayed  upon 
immortal  canvas. 

Lexington,  Ky.  GEORGE  W.  BAIN. 

On  behalf  of  the  National  Division  of  the  Sons  of  Temperance,  I  desire  to 
express  the  regret  we  feel  at  the  loss  of  Frances  E.  Willard.  She  earnestly 
worked  early  and  late,  wisely  and  well,  to  extend  the  blessings  of  temperance 
and  build  up  the  Union,  world-wide  in  its  operations  and  heavenly  in  its  aims. 
She  was  a  leader  among  women,  a  wise  manager  to  smooth  over  minor  differences 
and  direct  all  efforts  to  bless  our  country  and  the  world.  Her  star,  like  the 
morning  one,  has  melted  away  into  the  brightness  of  heaven. 

THOMAS  CASWELL, 
M.   W.  P.,  Sons  of  Temperance,   Toronto,  Canada. 


I  think  it  was  in  the  winter  of  1874-75  that  Miss  Willard  made  her  first 
appearance  in  Philadelphia  as  a  public  speaker.  I  had  then  the  honor  of  accom- 
panying her  on  a  Sabbath  morning  to  the  Green  Street  Methodist  Church,  where 
it  had  been  arranged  for  her  to  occupy  the  pulpit.  By  her  magnetic  personality, 
as  well  as  by  her  eloquence  and  the  strength  of  her  argument,  she  captivated  her 
audience.  As  she  held  aloft  the  standard  of  Purity  and  Sobriety,  it  seemed  to 
me  that  another  Jean  d'Arc  had  come  to  be  our  leader. 

Philadelphia.  JOSHUA  L.  BAILEY, 

President  National  Temperance  Society  and  Publication  House. 


Frances  E.  Willard  was  a  brave  soldier  and  true,  a  good  commander,  and 
finally  and  best  of  all,  a  great  and  gentle  woman.     .     .     .     Her  sympathies  and 


384  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

interests,  though  most  fully  invested  in  temperance  work,  were  not  limited  to  it. 
They  were  enlisted  in  every  cause  of  philanthropy.  When  the  relief  depot  was 
established  in  Marseilles,  France,  for  the  benefit  of  Armenian  fugitives,  she 
performed  the  noble  work  in  applying  the  funds  provided  by  the  Christian 
Herald.  REV.  DEWITT  TALMAGE,  D.D. 


It  is  with  profound  sorrow  we  learn  that  we  shall  never  have  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  again  in  this  world  the  kind  face  of  our  friend  of  many  years,  Frances  E. 
Willard.  Her  death  is  a  great  loss,  not  only  to  the  innumerable  thousands  who 
have  had  the  good  fortune  to  know  her,  but  also  to  the  cause  of  humanity 
throughout  the  civilized  world.  ' '  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant,  enter 
thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 

Boston,  Mass.  GEO.  T.  ANGELL, 

President  of  the  American  Humane  Education  Society. 


We  rejoice  to  live  in  the  same  day  with  a  woman  of  abilities  so  consecrated, 
of  life  so  Christlike;  one  in  whose  great  heart  there  was  no  room  for  selfishness  or 
resentment  or  bitterness,  and  who  realized  in  her  own  character  our  finest  ideals 
of  all  that  is  womanly.  The  eloquent  voice  is  hushed,  the  inspiring  presence  is 
gone;  but  in  spirit  Frances  Willard  is  still  the  loved  chieftain,  and  we  pray  that 
the  influence  of  this  rare  and  noble  life  may  move  us  and  women  everywhere  to 
higher  purposes  and  larger  faithfulness  in  the  work  of  helping  to  make  the  world 
better.  THE  FACULTY  OF  WELLESLEY  COLLEGE, 

ELLEN  HAYES,  SARAH  F.  WHITING,  ANGIE  CLARA  CHAPIN, 

Wellesley,  Mass.  Committee. 


The  admirable  proportion,  the  even  poise  of  Miss  Willard' s  powers,  were 
most  remarkable.  She  owed  this  largely  to  the  predominance  of  a  spiritual  pur- 
pose. Her  mind  was  full  of  light  because  she  looked  upon  the  world  with  a  single 
eye.  She  had  a  clear  insight  into  spiritual  life,  and  made  of  it  a  ruling,  harmoniz- 
ing motive.  This  is  well  illustrated  in  the  steadiness  with  which  she  pursued  tem- 
perance as  her  primary  work.  She  gave  a  large  meaning  to  the  word.  She  saw 
how  much  it  involved.  She  gathered  in  its  many  accessories,  but  she  allowed 
none  of  them  to  divert  her  from  the  primary  purpose. 

Williamstown,  Mass.  JOHN  and  EMMA  C.  BASCOM. 


Our  acquaintance  with  Miss  Willard  was  made  at  an  immense  W.  C.  T.  U. 
meeting  at  the  Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  in  1891.  Sympathy,  tact,  a  keen 
sense  of  humor,  eloquence,  and  behind  all  a  grand  reserve  of  powerful  character 
and  intense  earnestness,  were  all  combined  in  the  complete  mastery  which  that 
sweet,  gentle  personality  exercised  over  that  great  throng.  To  watch  her  for 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  385 

that  one  evening,  and  to  note  how  the  crowd  was  swayed  by  her  influence,  was 
to  understand,  at  least  to  some  extent,  the  secret  of  her  life  and  power.  We 
had  the  privilege  of  meeting  her  again  in  private  life,  but  only  on  two  occasions, 
but  now  and  again  would  come  one  of  those  friendly  notes,  full  of  originality  and 
kindliness,  always  giving  a  thought  that  would  abide. 

Ottawa,  Can.  THE  COUNTESS  OF  ABERDEEN. 


Frances  E.  Willard  was  a  dreamer  and  a  doer.  She  saw  visions  and 
wrought  them  into  orations  and  devices  and  achievements.  She  was  versatile 
and  practical,  intense  and  persistent.  She  swayed  a  scepter  like  a  queen;  and 
she  served  with  willing  hands  like  a  sister.  Her  faith  was  unlimited.  Her  hope 
made  the  future  radiant,  however  dark  and  discouraging  to  her  friends  and  fol- 
lowers the  immediate  present  seemed.  She  trusted  God  and  her  friends  and  the 
instincts  of  humanity.  She  knew  how  to  wait,  and  to  smile  in  confidence  when 
fears  filled  with  shadows  the  faces  of  her  coworkers. 

But  Frances  Willard' s  highest  quality  was  her  charity.  This  never  wavered 
and  never  grew  dim.  She  illustrated  the  grace  of  "  perfect  love  "  if  mortal  ever 
did.  I  have  for  years  in  my  thought  associated  her  with  the  matchless  Song  of 
Charity  sung  by  Paul  in  his  first  letter  to  the  Corinthians.  She  was  full  of  love. 
Her  spirit  was  connected  with  the  exhaustless  fountain  of  divine  love.  She  has 
fulfilled  the  divine  commission  given  to  her.  The  Christian  world  will  mourn 
her  sorely.  We  shall  do  well  if  we  follow  her  as  she  followed  Christ. 

Chautauqua,  N.  Y.  (  BISHOP)  JOHN  H.  VINCENT. 


Few  women  of  her  time  could  be  so  deeply  missed  and  mourned  as  Frances 
Willard.  Her  whole  life  has  been  a  benefaction.  She  has  spent  herself  lavishly 
in  the  cause  of  temperance  reform,  and  her  warm,  beating  heart  has  been,  like 
the  alabaster  box  of  old,  broken  at  her  Master's  feet.  Among  American  women 
no  other  has  more  generously,  more  faithfully,  and  more  steadfastly  wrought  for 
the  happiness  of  the  home,  the  elevation  of  youth,  and  for  social  purity.  Quiet 
and  unostentatious,  wonderfully  executive,  and  as  winsome  in  manner  as  she  was 
strong  in  conviction,  she  was  admirably  fitted  to  be  the  leader  of  movements 
which  have  been  far-reaching  in  their  influence,  and  which  will  not  cease  to  exert 
a  vast  and  mighty  power  though  the  beautiful  and  loving  woman  who  planned 
and  led  and  prayed  so  earnestly  has  gone  to  her  heavenly  home. 

New  York  City.  MARGARET  E.  SANGSTER, 

Editor  Harper's  Bazar, 


Ontario  W.  C.  T.  U.  unite  with  you  in  tenderest  sympathy.    John  xiii,  7. 

MAY  R.  THORNLEY, 

President. 

25 


386  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Dominion  comrades  mourn  their  chief.  ANNIE  O.  RUTHERFORD, 

President  Dominion  W.  C.  T.  U. 


From  the  Toronto  (Can.)  W.  C.  T.  U.  came  the  following  resolution: 
' '  We  rejoice  that  ours  was  the  exalted  privilege  of  having  Miss  Willard  in 
our  midst  so  recently  in  the  great  World's  Convention.  The  memories  of  those 
hallowed,  inspiring  hours  have  endeared  the  work  of  humanity  to  our  hearts  — 
love  means  more  to  us  since  the  irresistible  power  of  her  generous  magnetic  love 
touched  our  lives.  We  loved  her  as  our  '  Chieftain, '  and  think  her  title,  '  the 
best  loved  woman  in  the  world, '  but  mildly  expresses  the  love  and  devotion  of 
her  subjects." 

Catholic  Total  Abstinence  Union  mourns  the  loss  of  your  unselfish,  pure- 
hearted  leader.  No  more  devoted  champion  of  Christian  sobriety  has  sacrificed 
all  things  for  God,  home  and  humanity. 

Wisconsin.  REV.  J.  M.  CLEARY. 

She  encircled  the  whole  world  with  the  pure  light  of  her  reformatory  spirit. 
Our  city,  with  all  its  blackness  and  degradation,  has  been  made  whiter  by  her 
life  and  will  be  made  more  splendid  by  her  monument.  Her  grand  life  is  a 
prophecy  and  harbinger  of  the  good  time  which  has  been  so  long  on  the  way. 
Miss  Willard  will  be  mourned  in  all  the  continents.  I  found  her  name  as  familiar 
and  dear  in  Asia  as  in  America.  Twenty  years  hence  her  name  and  deeds  will 
loom  up  larger  than  even  today. 

Chicago.  REV.  JOHN  HENRY  BARROWS,  D.D. 


Your  loss  is  great.  The  breach  is  wide.  A  noble  heart  has  ceased  to  beat 
in  our  midst,  but  the  cause  of  temperance  and  purity  your  leader  so  disinterest- 
edly and  courageously  championed  must  not  suffer.  The  women  and  children 
of  the  White  Ribbon  and  the  fathers  and  brothers  who  stand  by  them  must 
spring  into  the  gap.  Inspired  by  her  spirit  they  must  take  the  field  and  carry 
on  the  work  she  has  left  behind. 

New  York  City.  COMMANDER  AND  CONSUL  BOOTH-TUCKER. 


We  sympathize  with  you  and  Christian  temperance  workers  in  loss  of  a  noble 
friend  and  leader. 

Northfield,  Mass.  MR.  and  MRS.  DWIGHT  L.  MOODY. 


How  well  I  remember  the  day  that  I  stood  in  the  parlor  at  Rest  Cottage  by 
the  casket  of  her  dear  mother,  and  placed  on  it  a  large  palm  branch,  and  she 
asked  me  to  sing,  ' '  Psalms  of  victory,  crowns  of  glory,  I  shall  wear. ' '  It  was 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  387 

a  favorite  hymn  with  her  mother.  I  sang  softly  one  verse,  when  she  said,  "Yes, 
Amanda,  my  dear  mother  is  no  more,  her  battle  is  fought,  her  victory  is  won."' 
How  glad  I  am  for  the  privilege  of  having  known  her  for  the  past  twenty-five 

years 

Chicago.  AMANDA  SMITH. 

I  take  pleasure  in  expressing  my  high  appreciation  of  the  life  and  work  of 
Miss  Frances  E.  Willard.  It  has  been  a  life  of  devotion  to  humanity.  Her 
services  in  the  cause  of  temperance  and  good  morals  have  been  of  inestimable 
value.  Her  example  and  influence  will  henceforth  be  a  part  of  the  forces  mold- 
ing the  advancing  civilization  of  our  country  and  the  world.  I  pay  my  tribute 
to  her  memory  with  profound  respect. 

Washington,  D.  C. JOHN  D.  LONG. 

In  her  unselfish  devotion  to  a  great  cause,  Miss  Frances  E.  Willard  lost  sight 
of  sex,  races  and  color,  and  gave  her  life  freely  to  the  task  of  making  our  world 
better.  The  negro  race  will  always  keep  her  memory  green  in  their  hearts,  and 
will  more  and  more  strive,  as  the  years  pass  by,  to  live  by  the  principles  that  she 
taught. 

Tuskegee,  Ala.  BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON. 


The  blow  has  fallen.  From  the  world  has  been  taken  another  lover  of 
humanity.  There  are  no  words  to  express  the  loss  to  the  world  and  to  the 
world' s  workers,  and  none  to  portray  the  glory  into  which  the  beautiful  soul  has 
entered. 

Anacostia,  D.  C.  HELEN  DOUGLASS. 

(Mrs.  Frederick  Douglass.) 

That  something  of  my  words  (in  "  Kindly  Light  in  Prayer  and  Praise") 
comforted  our  beautiful  sister,  so  tender,  so  true  to  the  whole  of  humanity,  is  a 
very  sacred  thing  to  me.  I  bless  God  for  giving  her  to  our  world.  Her  work  by 
the  grace  of  the  shadow  of  death  will  increase  here  into  an  ever-greatening  spirit- 
ual power. 

New  York  City.  REV.  JOHN  M.  SCOTT. 

Commanding  in  intellectual  gifts,  with  rare  judicial  poise  and  far-sightedness, 
and  the  will  to  execute,  with  conscience  ever  regnant  in  her  soul,  Miss  Willard 
yet  won  most  hearts  by  the  prodigious  power  of  her  tender  womanhood.  It  was 
never  hers  to  create  and  mother  a  home,  but  multitudes  of  homes  caught  her 
sweet  womanly  uplifting,  and  are  today  as  if  she  had  mothered  them.  That  she 
could  keep  such  a  spirit,  though  thrust  constantly  into  the  high  noon  of  this 
modern  day,  is  her  peculiar  glory. 

Chicago.  REV.  HERRICK  JOHNSON,  D.D. 


388  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

It  is  with  the  profoundest  sorrow  that  we  have  heard  of  the  death  of  Miss 
Willard,  the  most  useful  as  well  as  the  most  loved  woman  in  America. 
New  York  City.  REV.  WILLIAM  HAYES  WARD,  D.D. 

Editor  of  the  Independent. 

No  international  bereavement  has  ever  been  as  extensive  among  the  women 
of  the  world  as  this  for  Frances  Willard.  We  all  rejoice  that  we  have  been 
blessed  by  her  human  preparation  for  the  real  life  just  commenced. 

New  York  City.  ELIZABETH  B.  GRANNIS, 

National  Christian  League  for  the  Promotion  of  Social  Purity. 


Words  fail  to  adequately  express  my  appreciation  of  the  lifework  of  Miss 
Willard.  Her  death  is  mourned  in  a  million  homes;  her  name  will  ever  remain 
among  the  brightest  stars  in  the  galaxy  of  the  world's  illustrious  workers  in  the 
cause  of  humanity.  May  all  mankind  emulate  her  noble  example. 

J.  R.  SOVEREIGN, 
Head  of  the  Knights  of  Labor. 


With  Frances  Willard  I  became  acquainted  in  1857,  when  president  of  the 
Northwestern  University.  The  friendship  then  commenced  lasted,  unbroken, 
throughout  life.  I  desire  to  further  add  that  in  all  my  acquaintance  with  men 
and  women,  I  think  I  never  knew  a  mind  and  heart  superior  to  Frances  Wil- 
lard's,  or  a  character  more  beautiful.  From  the  beginning  she  devoted  herself 
absolutely  to  the  loftiest  aims  —  to  reaching  the  highest  ideal  of  character,  and 
to  realizing  the  largest  possible  usefulness. 

I  regard  her  as  having  attained  a  place  among  the  foremost  women  of  her 
time  or  of  any  time;  her  history  is  well  known  to  all  who  are  interested  in  the 
reforms  of  the  past  thirty  years;  no  one  could  be  with  her  for  a  day  without  feel- 
ing her  power.  Frances  Willard' s  death  seems  premature  —  a  great  loss  —  but 
her  influence  will  never  die. 

A  little  tribute  from  an  old,  old  friend. 

Dorchester,  Mass.  ( BISHOP)  RANDOLPH  S.  FOSTER. 


When  I  first  met  Frances  E.  Willard  and  her  mother  —  each  remarkable  in 
her  own  way — Frances  had  just  been  installed  as  president  of  a  girl's  college; 
her  gifts  and  graces  were  extolled  on  all  sides.  As  I  was  their  guest  at  Rest 
Cottage,  I  had  the  opportunity  to  appreciate  their  domestic  as  well  as  their 
public  virtues,  though  the  interests  of  neither  were  bounded  by  the  home  sphere. 

I  was  invited  there  to  lecture,  and  Frances,  in  a  few  well-chosen  words, 
introduced  me  to  the  audience.  We  sat  up  till  a  late  hour  discussing  all  the 
vital  questions  of  the  day.  We  avoided  the  theologies,  knowing  that  there  we 
might  have  broad  differences  of  opinion.  Though  twenty-five  years  her  senior, 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES —TRIBUTES  389 

I  felt  I  was  talking  with  a  woman  of  mature  judgment,  clear  intellect  and  well 
digested  ideas.  The  revelation  of  such  a  character  in  one  so  young  gave  me 
new  hope  in  the  possibilities  of  all  women. 

One  of  the  greatest  women  of  this  generation  has  passed  away  in  the  prime 
of  life,  a  woman  of  rare  gifts  as  a  writer  and  speaker,  with  great  executive  ability, 
and  a  sweet,  gentle  nature. 

New  York  City.  ELIZABETH  CADY  STANTON. 


Miss  Willard,  as  I  knew  her,  was  sweet,  sympathetic  and  approachable 
in  private  intercourse  ;  powerful,  brilliant  and  commanding  as  a  public  leader; 
and  straight,  fearless  and  faithful  as  a  follower  of  the  teachings  of  Christ.  All 
who  knew  her  must  deeply  and  personally  mourn  her  loss,  and  all  who  knew  her 
must  be  inspired  and  helped  by  the  memory  of  her  life  and  work. 

New  York  City.  MAUDE  BALLINGTON  BOOTH. 


Frances  E.  Willard  has  gone!  One  word  has  stayed  with  me  since  she 
departed  —  "Of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy. ' ' 

I  have  only  seen  her  since  she  left,  as  she  is.  I  cannot  make  a  study  of  her 
now.  I  can  see  her  in  the  Beyond.  I  have  seen  a  look  at  times  upon  her  face 
here  which  helps  me  to  see  her  there. 

She  sees  the  Master  for  whom  she  laid  down  her  life,  and  finds  it  beautiful  to 
be  with  God  —  at  rest.  But  He  would  never  be  so  beautiful  to  her  now  if  she 
had  not  been  with  God  in  the  battle  on  earth  —  it  is  the  warrior's  rest. 

Frances  E.  Willard  was  a  brave  woman,  a  real  daughter  of  The  King.  The 
word  to  us  is,  ' '  whose  faith  follow. ' '  We  may  not  follow,  or  be  like  her  in 
many  respects;  we  can  follow  her  faith. 

New  York  City.  MARGARET  BOTTOME, 

President  of  The  King' s  Daughters  and  Sons. 


Were  I  to  speak  of  but  one  characteristic  of  Miss  Willard,  and  to  leave  it 
for  others  to  dwell  upon  other  qualities,  I  would  say  that  the  quality  by  which  I 
believe  she  will  be  longest  remembered  will  be  her  world-wide  sympathy.  Most 
fittingly  was  she  the  president  of  the  World' s  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union,  as  well  as  of  the  Temperance  Union  of  America.  Her  heart  was  never 
satisfied  unless  it  took  within  its  ample  boundaries  the  needs  and  sufferings,  the 
woes  and  misfortunes  of  the  whole  wide  world. 

Thomas  a  Kempis,  in  one  of  his  Meditations  which  the  world  will  never 
willingly  let  die,  says  something  of  this  sort:  "  He  liveth  well  who  loveth  much, 
he  liveth  much  who  loveth  well,  and  he  liveth  much  and  well  who  prefers  the 
welfare  of  the  community  to  his  own  personal  gratification."  These  words  can 
be  spoken  of  our  departed  friend  without  qualification.  She  loved  much,  she 


390  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

did  much,  she  lived  well,  because  her  whole  life  was  devoted  not  to  herself,  but  to 
the  advancement  and  the  welfare  of  those  whom  she  loved  better  than  self,  the 
weary,  the  heavy-laden,  the  sin-burdened. 

All  her  letters  breathe  this  spirit,  all  her  public  utterances  were  of  the  largest 
and  most  catholic  description.  She  never  spoke  a  narrow,  unworthy,  sectarian 
word  in  her  life.  It  was  this  breadth  of  vision,  this  largeness  of  heart,  this  wide- 
ness  of  sympathy,  this  catholicity  of  utterance  which  gave  to  her  much  of  her 
power.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say,  I  think,  that  she  was  the  first  woman  of 
America,  not  by  accident  of  birth  or  wealth,  but  by  her  own  sterling  qualities  of 
character  and  leadership.  Never  has  there  been  a  more  conspicuous  example  in 
the  history  of  our  country  of  the  fact  that  eminent  fitness  will  be  recognized,  that 
genuine  worth  will  find  its  own  high  level.  In  this  it  is  a  pleasure  to  every  patriot 
\f>  believe  that  Miss  Willard  was  a  typical  American,  and  her  conspicuous  success 
and  fitness  for  her  task  is  of  itself  a  sermon  to  ever"  aspiring  young  person  in  the 
world. 

Through  her  own  persistent  courage,  her  genuine  regard  for  purity,  her 
strong  devotion  to  the  causes  which  she  espoused  through  evil  and  good  report, 
her  tact  and  loving  sympathy  for  all,  her  name  has  been  inscribed  on  the  imperish- 
able roll  of  her  country's  history.  To  have  known  such  a  woman  is  an  inspira- 
tion, to  have  had  her  for  years  at  the  head  of  a  great  movement  is  a  benediction 
not  only  to  the  cause  with  which  she  was  connected,  but  to  the  nation  at  large. 
Untold  millions  in  the  future  generations,  I  believe,  will  call  her  blessed. 

Boston,  Mass.  FRANCIS  E.  CLARK, 

President  International  Young  People's  Society 
of  Christian  Endeavor. 


As  I  sit  in  my  study,  I  remember  the  last  time  I  had  a  talk  with  our  dear 
friend,  Miss  Willard.  She  came  here  by  appointment,  and  we  had  a  long  dis- 
cussion over  mutual  interests.  The  great  work  for  purity  and  true  womanhood, 
especially,  came  into  our  thoughts.  As  she  told  of  some  wonderful  meetings 
recently  held  in  Washington  and  Baltimore,  her  face  glowed,  and  she  showed  her 
own  glorious  womanhood  in  every  word  and  gesture.  I  count  it  one  of  the  rare 
privileges  of  a  busy  life  that  I  knew  Miss  Willard  face  to  face.  Her  life  has  been 
to  me  an  inspiration,  as  well  as  to  thousands  of  others.  While  we  might  differ 
as  to  ways  and  means,  we  didn'  t  differ  in  the  great  principle  which  we  were  work- 
ing for.  I  delighted  in  the  health  of  that  mind,  and  as  department  after  depart- 
ment developed  in  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  I  felt  that  the 
leader  must  have  initiated  them  all,  and  to  her  was  the  praise  due. 

Is  not  her  spirit  still  with  the  work,  and  shall  not  the  Master  allow  her  beau- 
tiful life  still  to  linger  in  the  midst  of  those  who  so  loved  her  ?  Surely  yes  ! 

New  York  City.  GRACE  H.  DODGE. 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES—  TRIBUTES  391 

I  never  met  Miss  Willard  but  once,  but  we  had  been  the  best  of  friends  for 
many  years  through  correspondence.  We  had  a  great  many  interests  in  com- 
mon, and  though  we  were  both  very  busy  women,  we  came  to  know  each  other 
quite  well  through  the  medium  of  the  mail  bag. 

I  had  always  had  a  dim  idea  that  Miss  Willard  was  a  rather  severe  person; 
but  when  I  met  her  I  found  her  one  of  the  ' '  cosiest ' '  women  whom  I  had 
ever  known.  Miss  Willard  chaffed  me  a  little  for  not  being  on  her  side  of  the 
woman  question;  but  she  was  very  amiable  about  it,  and  seemed  sanguine  that  I 
would  come  round  to  her  way  of  thinking  in  the  end.  I  am  sure  that  if  anyone 
could  have  converted  me  to  that  side  of  the  question,  it  would  have  been  this 
gentle  lady.  We  had  tea  out  under  an  enormous  oak,  and  Miss  Willard  was  the 
life  (or  perhaps  I  should  say  the  soul)  of  the  party;  when  she  spoke  everyone 
listened,  and  with  reason,  for  she  never  spoke  unless  she  had  something  interest- 
ing to  say. 

New  York  City.  JEANNETTE  L.  GILDER. 


I  knew  Miss  Willard  in  her  girlhood,  when  she  was  a  student  in  school  at 
Evanston,  Illinois.  She  then  gave  evidence  of  the  remarkable  qualities  of  mind 
and  character  which  were  afterwards  so  thoroughly  exemplified  in  her  public 
career.  It  is  useless  to  review,  or  even  to  allude  to  her  work.  That  is  on 
record.  The  instructive  and  encouraging  thought  to  me  is  the  illustration  she 
furnishes  of  the  power  of  a  great  personality  to  impress  itself  upon  mankind. 
Born  in  comparative  obscurity,  she  emerged,  through  the  innate  qualities  of  her 
noble  mind  and  loving  heart,  into  the  ' '  white  light ' '  which  beats  not  only  upon 
the  throne,  but  upon  those  who  rule  the  hearts  of  men. 

Washington,  D.  C.  LYMAN  J.  GAGE. 


Carlyle  somewhere  describes  the  insight  of  genius  as  ' '  co-operation  with  the 
real  tendency  of  the  world. ' '  Among  the  great  world  tendencies  of  the  last  half 
century  have  been  those  toward  organization,  the  emancipation  of  women,  the 
Christianizing  of  reforms,  and  the  drawing  of  Christians  of  every  name  into  closer 
relations.  Miss  Willard  had  the  genius  to  lay  hold  of  these  great  strands  and 
braid  them  into  The  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  —  one  of  the  great 
organizations  of  modern  times,  in  which  woman  is  finding  herself,  and  one  whose 
Christianity  is  actively  philanthropic,  while  its  philanthropy  is  actively  Christian. 
But  few,  even  now,  have  gained  the  clear  vision  of  the  social  mission  of  Christian- 
ity which  Miss  Willard  had  ten  years  ago.  She  had  the  genius  to  see,  the  cour- 
age to  act,  and  the  ability  to  accomplish.  She  was  one  of  the  great  women  of 
the  world,  and  made  all  peoples  her  debtors. 

New  York  City.  JOSIAH  STRONG,  D.D., 

General  Secretary  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance. 


392  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Miss  Willard  was  an  ideal  character,  gentle  yet  bold,  kind  yet  firm  as  ada- 
mant for  the  right. 

The  moving  spirit  of  her  life  was  heaven  begun  within,  and  we  must 
wait  until  we  see  her  in  her  heavenly  home,  through  spiritual  eyes,  and  in  an 
atmosphere  that  casts  no  shadows,  before  we  can  do  justice  to  the  inner  life  and 
character  of  our  glorified  sister,  Frances  E.  Willard.  Earth  has  been  enriched 
by  her  life  and  presence.  The  noble  W.  C.  T.  U.  have  lost  a  sister,  friend,  wise 
counsellor  and  brave  leader.  We  all  have  lost  a  noble  colaborer,  and  a  sympa- 
thetic friend. 

New  York  City.  ANTHONY  COMSTOCK. 


I  saw  Miss  Willard  in  New  York  about  the  first  of  February.  I  thought  she 
was  hovering  on  the  brink  of  the  Great  Beyond  then.  She  tried  to  appear  as 
bright  and  full  of  energy  as  ever,  and  did  not  appear  to  realize  her  condition. 
She  spoke  to  me  of  what  she  wished  to  do  when  she  should  recover.  I  knew  her 
for  a  period  of  about  twenty-five  years,  having  met  her  shortly  after  her  return 
from  her  first  trip  abroad.  She  was  a  most  remarkable,  a  most  extraordinary 
woman  in  every  respect.  She  possessed  all  the  attributes  of  a  great  general. 
She  superintended  every  branch  of  her  work,  which  included  the  world.  She  was 
a  most  masterly  woman  and  was  a  representative  one  in  every  respect.  She  was 
a  bunch  of  magnetism,  possessing  that  occult  force  which  all  leaders  must  have.  I 
never  approached  her  but  what  I  felt  my  nerves  tingle  from  this  magnetism. 
She  had  a  great  depth  of  understanding.  Her  brain  was  developed  in  a  most 
wonderful  manner.  She  seemed  to  have  the  power,  so  seldom  possessed,  to  take 
in  everything  at  once.  The  loss  will  be  keenly  felt  throughout  Christendom,  and 
by  every  person  who  recognized  the  ability  of  this  jewel  of  women. 

Rochester,  N.  Y.  SUSAN  B.  ANTHONY. 


The  characteristics  which  differentiated  Miss  Willard  from  every  other  human 
being  were  her  unique  identity  and  sympathy  with  every  other  human  being. 
Cicero  says  that,  ' '  Every  man  is  more  like  every  other  man  than  he  is  like  him- 
self." Behind  our  crust  of  self  we  have  a  common  human  heart.  If  it  can  be 
liberated  and  enlarged  our  hearts  will  flow  together.  So  the  ' '  Son  of  Man ' ' 
is  drawing  all  men  unto  Him  by  His  self-sacrifice.  The  soul  which  takes  His 
cross  receives  His  power.  A  true  soul  will  turn  and  draw  to  itself  the  best  side 
of  every  other  soul  which  will  let  itself  be  true. 

So,  the  mystery  of  Miss  Willard' s  power  was  its  simplicity,  that  purity  of 
heart  which  saw  God  and  loved  God  with  all  the  heart  and  loved  neighbor  as 
self. 

But  how  was  such  a  light  prepared  ?  The  life  of  the  ' '  Great  Mother ' ' 
answers  the  question  in  part.  We  should  add  the  influence  of  the  strong  father 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  393 

and  of  the  lives  of  Puritan  ancestry,  in  whom  the  Law  and  the  Prophets  had  grown 
for  three  centuries  until  the  time  was  fully  come  for  a  generation  in  whom  the 
might  of  truth  could  be  clothed  with  the  grace  of  the  Gospel  to  win  the  world. 
Then  came  the  secluded  education,  like  that  of  the  boy  at  Nazareth  —  subject  to 
parents  and  communing  with  nature  and  with  God.  Then  at  the  crisis  when 
such  a  gifted  mind  came  to  measure  itself  with  other  minds  and  with  the  great 
ranges  of  thought  and  was  in  peril  of  that  pride  which  is  the  ruin  of  the  soul, 
came  that  conversion,  when  in  a  crisis  of  a  fever,  the  spirit,  alone  with  God, 
resolved,  "  I  will  try  to  be  a  Christian  girl."  She  turned  and  slept,  and  woke 
to  a  newness  of  life  for  herself,  and  in  large  measure,  for  her  generation. 

It  was  a  generation  whose  best  womanhood  had  shared  the  same  discipline 
of  former  times  and  felt  the  same  exigencies  of  the  present.  They  entered  into 
the  great  ' '  Crusade ' '  of  the  home  against  the  saloon.  When  the  enthusiasm  of 
that  Crusade  reached  Illinois  Miss  Willard  had  won  a  place  among  the  foremost 
educators  of  the  time.  High  positions  were  calling  for  her.  But  the  mind  and 
heart  and  soul  of  the  best  womanhood  was  in  the  movement,  and  the  most  whole- 
minded,  whole-hearted  and  whole-souled  of  women  could  but  be  in  it.  Her  very 
forgetfulness  of  self  could  but  put  her  in  the  front  of  that  larger  self.  By  the 
most  natural  law,  without  effort  or  intent,  her  genius  pervaded  it  and  gave  form 
and  life  to  that  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  in  which  the  Crusade 
enthusiasm  found  a  body  in  which  the  consecrated  womanhood  of  Illinois  and 
our  country,  and  the  world,  could  unite  in  the  labor  and  prayer  to  enlarge  the 
walls  of  home  to  a  pavilion  to  cover  every  nation  and  every  soul  —  a  tabernacle 
where  God  may  dwell  with  men. 

We  cannot  all  have  her  gift.  Can  we  not  all  seek  that  consecration  of 
every  gift  we  have  by  which  we,  too,  shall  win  our  share  of  all  ?  Can  we  not 
learn  that  almost  last  word  of  hers  to  "  Say  we,  not  I — for  is  it  not  our  Father?" 

Beloit,  Wis.  PROF.  JOSEPH  EMERSON. 


We  cannot  do  otherwise  than  lament,  for  our  own  sake,  the  loss  of  Miss 
Willard' s  companionship  and  active  service  in  the  fields  of  her  leadership  ;  but 
we  ought  still  more  to  rejoice  over  the  welcome  we  know  she  has  received  to  a 
higher  service  in  a  more  exalted  sphere.  She  was  especially  distinguished  for  a 
remarkable  combination  of  purity,  courage  and  strength.  She  was  richly 
endowed  with  a  genius  for  quickly  perceiving  and  promptly  improving  opportu- 
nities for  progress. 

The  leader  of  the  greatest  army  of  reform  which  the  world  has  yet  seen,  she 
commanded  the  devoted  service  of  her  followers  by  her  own  inspiring  example, 
and  the  transcendent  ability  with  which  she  united  forces  not  altogether  harmo- 
nious, and  removed  difficulties  and  surmounted  obstacles  which  would  have  dis- 
couraged less  daring  souls.  In  moral  influence  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  she 


394  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

was  the  foremost  woman  of  her  time.      Her  greatness  consisted  in  her  command 
of  all  her  resources,  and  her  readiness  to  act  in  an  emergency. 
Chicago.  C.  C.   BONNEY, 

President  of  the  Columbian  Exposition  Congresses. 


The  Council  of  Jewish  Women,  representing  sixty-one  cities,  desire  to 
express,  through  their  executive  officers,  their  heartfelt  sympathy  to  the  officers 
and  members  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  upon  the  death  of 
their  great  leader,  Miss  Frances  Willard;  and  to  assure  them  that  the  Council  of 
Jewish  Women  mourn  with  them  the  loss  of  a  beloved  sister  and  friend.  Her 
name  and  her  works  will  live  forever  as  an  inspiration  to  a  nobler  life. 

Chicago.  H.  G.  SOLOMON, 

President. 

The  death  of  Frances  Willard  deprived  me  of  a  personal  friend  whom  I  had 
known  for  thirty  years.  As  we  were  for  a  time  near  neighbors  in  lovely  Evans- 
ton,  I  knew  her  rare  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  as  few  could  who  had  not  met 
her  amid  the  sanctities  of  the  home  and  in  the  smallest  circle  of  intimate  friends. 
To  those  of  us  who  were  associated  in  educational  work  in  Evanston  it  was  a  sore 
trial  to  have  this  gifted  and  accomplished  woman  resign  the  Deanship  of  the 
Woman's  College  and  take  up  an  untried  work  which  was  then  in  its  infancy.  It 
was  manifestly  a  heavenly  vision  which  called  her  and  she  was  not  disobedient. 
God's  hand  has  been  upon  her  and  over  her  through  all  the  years.  Her  gentle 
face  is  veiled  from  our  mortal  sight,  but  she  is  still  here  in  the  fragrance  of  undy- 
ing memories,  and  in  those  invisible  ministries  which  bind  in  unbroken  unity 
"the  whole  family  in  earth  and  heaven." 

Detroit,  Mich.  ( BISHOP)  W.  X.  NINDE. 


"The  bravest  are  the  tenderest, 
The  loving  are  the  daring." 

Such  was  Dr.  Frances  E.  Willard,  one  of  the  few  doctors  of  laws  that  really 
taught  what  civil  laws  should  be,  namely,  translations  of  God's  lavs,  and  in  a 
measure  cut  away,  with  firm  but  kind  surgery,  the  cancers  that  human  wicked- 
ness and  weakness  had  developed  in  them. 

Her  most  characteristic  phrase,  I  think,  was  that  word  of  large  charity  about 
those  who  opposed,  or  neglected,  the  many  reforms  she  championed — "The 
arrest  of  thought  has  not  come. ' '  To  how  many,  and  how  sweetly,  she  brought 
that  ' '  arrest, ' '  arousing  from  error  not  only,  but  also  from  luxurious  indifference, 
enlisting  women  with  no  higher  aim  than  social  pleasure  in  the  grander  joy  of 
promoting  social  welfare. 

Washington,  D.  C.  REV.  DR.  WILBUR  F.  CRAFTS, 

Superintendent  of  the  Reform  Bureau. 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  395 

Miss  Willard  seemed  to  me  to  express,  as  completely  as  any  person  I  have 
ever  known,  the  force  of  moral  energy.  Her  whole  nature  was  vitalized,  and 
she  seemed  to  utilize  every  ounce  of  her  power.  Her  vivacity,  breadth  of  inter- 
est and  capacity  for  work,  were  evidenced  by  her  sustained  and  varied  activities, 
but  her  endurance  can  be  explained  only  by  recalling  her  passion  for  human 
service.  This  passion  included  not  only  her  steady  endeavor  for  public  causes, 
but  her  constant  and  tireless  effort  to  find  place,  room  and  work  for  others. 

New  York  City.  HAMILTON  W.  MABIE. 

No  work  that  Frances  Willard  did  was  small.  But  these  two  characteristics 
marked  her  service  of  humanity.  She  moved  continually  from  the  lesser  to  the 
greater,  and  she  grew  younger  and  fresher  with  the  lapse  of  years.  These  two 
are  the  rarest  and  most  potent  qualities  that  God  gives  to  men.  The  climax  of 
a  great  life  would  have  been  reached  if  she  had  left  the  body  after  the  establish- 
ment of  the  first  World-Union  for  the  world's  sake  and  the  culmination  of  her  great 
work  for  temperance.  But  she  was  greater  than  this.  By  a  new  birth  in  her  last 
years  her  vision  was  enlarged,  her  horizon  was  extended,  and  she  has  spoken, 
among  her  last  words,  her  greatest  message,  the  prophecy  and  the  inspiration  of 
a  true  social  regeneration. 

Boston,  Mass.  BENJAMIN  FAY  MILLS. 

Miss  Willard  differed  from  other  women  in  her  unselfishness,  in  her  great 
love  and  tenderness  to  all  with  whom  she  came  in  contact;  she  never  forgot  any 
one  and  had  the  ability  to  call  by  name  anyone  she  had  ever  known.  A  little 
incident  comes  to  my  mind  illustrating  this.  In  one  of  our  Eastern  cities,  after 
one  of  her  great  speeches,  when  surrounded  by  a  number  of  eminent  people,  she 
felt  a  touch  on  her  sleeve,  and  looking  around  saw  an  uncouth  and  unkempt  back- 
woodsman, who  had  known  her  in  her  girlhood  days.  Promptly  she  held  out  her 
hand,  saying  to  those  around  her:  "This  is  my  old  friend  ' Tom,'  whom  I  knew 
in  the  old  farm  days. ' '  I  think  she  excelled  other  women  in  her  consecration  to 
duty,  for  which  she  gave  up  all,  even  her  life.  Her  loving  loyalty  to  friends,  her 
great  force  of  character,  her  personal  amiability,  her  gentle  strength,  and  above 
all,  her  pure  womanliness,  make  her  character  stand  out  one  by  itself. 

Chicago.  AMANDA  B.  CRANDALL. 

Miss  Willard  possessed  the  scope  and  grasp  of  principles  essential  to  states- 
manship, and  combined  with  these  that  delicate  tact  and  facility  in  making  con- 
cessions as  to  details,  indispensable  to  the  successful  politician. 

In  the  annals  of  this  remarkable  woman's  career  the  historian  of  the  civil  and 
social  life  of  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  will  find  large  materials.  Her 
sympathy,  her  tenderness,  her  versatility,  her  tact,  and  above  all,  her  power  of 


396  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

generalization,  compelled  the  slightest  incidents  to  plead  her  cause,  and  enabled 
her  to  turn  conversation  which  had  started  upon  any  subject  whatever,  to  the 
illumination  of  her  two  great  themes  —  the  emancipation  of  the  race  from  the 
tyranny  of  liquor,  and  the  emancipation  of  women  from  political  subjection. 

In  the  course  of  her  public  career  Frances  E.  Willard  has  been  an  honored 
guest  in  thousands  of  homes  —  homes  that  have  included  representatives  of  every 
class  from  cottage  to  palace.  Every  home  that  has  sheltered  her  has  been  lifted 
by  her  presence  to  the  dignity  and  the  pure  solemnity  of  a  temple.  Such  are  the 
temples  in  which  will  be  nourished  the  high  thoughts  and  lofty  hopes  sown  by 
her  influence. 

Indianapolis,  Ind.  MAY  WRIGHT  SEWALL, 

President  International  Council  of  Women. 


Through  Miss  Willard' s  efforts,  thousands  upon  thousands  of  men  and 
women  have  been  educated  up  to  the  level  of  the  woman  suffrage  movement, 
and  have  been  brought  to  see  the  truth  of  her  words  — ' '  The  mother-heart  must 
be  enthroned  in  all  places  of  power  before  its  edicts  will  be  heeded. ' ' 

Boston,  Mass.  ALICE  STONE  BLACKWELL. 


Love  is  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world.  How  loving  and  true  our  dear  Miss 
Willard  was  !  The  heart  that  dictated  ' '  Nineteen  Beautiful  Years, ' '  which  so 
absorbed  Lady  Henry  Somerset,  was,  as  Lady  Henry  said,  ' '  Not  Christly  but  a 
Christ. ' '  Miss  Willard  gave  her  life  that  she  might  ' '  tell  everybody  to  be  good. ' ' 
We  have  gone  in  and  out  as  neighbors  with  perfect  harmony.  Our  entire  family 
owe  a  debt  of  love  to  Miss  Willard  which  can  be  paid  only  with  love.  To  me 
she  is  not  dead  but  gone  forward,  where  they  who  lived  on  earth  and  now  are 
glorified  in  heaven  will  some  time  greet  us. 

Evanston,  111.  MRS.  C.  P.  BRAGDON. 


Frances  Willard  was  as  great  in  her  gentleness  and  sweetness  of  spirit  as  she 
was  in  her  intellectual  power,  her  eloquence,  or  her  goodness.  ...  .  Bitter 
and  cruel  things  were  hurled  at  her  devoted  head  a  thousand  times.  Her  soul 
was  as  sensitive  as  the  surface  of  a  mountain  lake  to  the  kiss  of  the  wind  ;  but 
no  attack  from  the  common  enemies  of  her  cause,  or  from  within  the  sisterhood 
she  loved,  ever  soured  her,  or  embittered  her  feelings,  or  robbed  her  of  the 
gentleness  and  sweetness  of  her  nature.  .  .  . 

Her  faith  in  God,  her  devotion  to  Christ,  her  faith  in  humanity,  were  bound- 
less. I  never  knew  anyone  who  saw  more  clearly  the  possibility  of  good  in 
broken  and  soiled  human  hearts  and  lives  than  did  she.  She  lived  in  such 
harmony  with  the  Christ  that  she  looked  upon  the  toilworn,  the  discouraged  and 
the  sinful  among  her  brothers  and  sisters  from  the  standpoint  of  her  Lord. 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  397 

Underneath  the  frayed  and  tattered  garments  of  broken  and  sinful  humanity  she 
ever  saw  the  hidden,  possible  Christ. 

Wherever  in  America,  or  in  the  world,  men  and  women  fight  for  righteous- 
ness, and  give  themselves  as  a  sacrifice  to  soothe  the  world's  heartache,  the  name 
and  memory  of  Frances  Willard  will  be  to  them  a  comfort  and  an  inspiration 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  REV.  Louis  ALBERT  BANKS,  D.D. 


Any  words  of  eulogy  which  I  write  of  our  beloved  and  now  sainted  leader 
and  sister,  Frances  Willard,  whose  brave  life  is  so  fully  before  us,  seem  like  hold- 
ing a  dim  lantern,  that  we  might  see  more  clearly  the  brilliant  electric  arc  light. 

No  daughter  of  our  own  or  any  nation  has  labored  more  faithfully  to 
show,  in  its  true  light  —  personal  and  legal  —  that  mighty  evil,  the  open  saloon. 
She  felt  as  keenly  for  the  men,  women  and  children  who  were  the  voluntary  or 
innocent  victims  of  this  dire  malady  as  though  they  were  of  her  own  kindred.  A 
pity,  well-nigh  divine,  filled  her  heart  with  almost  superhuman  power  to  work  on 
until  the  fire  in  the  soul  burned  out  its  earthly  dwelling.  This  was  the  source  of 
the  untiring  energy  with  which  she  strove,  with  tongue  and  pen,  to  comfort  the 
suffering  and  reprove  those  who,  by  personal  example  and  the  almost  omnipotent 
power  of  the  ballot,  upheld  the  traffic  which  opens  the  gateway  to  every  form  of 
vice  that  can  be  named. 

Castile,  N.  Y.  CORDELIA  A.  GREENE,  M.D. 


Frances  Willard  was  a  woman  who  touched  life  at  almost  every  point.  She 
had  the  widest  range  of  interests,  the  most  all-embracing  sympathies,  and  that 
charity  which  not  only  thinketh  no  evil,  but  which  was  so  vital  in  its  kindling  love 
as  to  fairly  transform  evil  into  good,  or  negative  faults  into  positive  virtues.  She 
had  the  most  remarkable  combination  of  power  and  delicacy;  she  carried  the 
refined  courtesy  of  the  drawing-room  into  all  her  public  life;  she  gave  of  the  infi- 
nite riches  of  personal  love  and  tenderness  not  only  to  near  friends,  but  to  a 
wide  circle  associated  with  her  only  in  public  interests;  she  made  of  even  the 
casual  acquaintance  a  devoted  personal  friend.  She  had  a  gift  which  can  hardly 
be  characterized  as  other  than  divination,  which  enabled  her  to  immediately  estab- 
lish direct  relations  with  each  person  she  met.  That  lethargy  of  the  soul,  that  par- 
alyzed condition  of  affection  and  sympathy  which  we  know  as  indifference,  was 
utterly  foreign  to  her  nature.  Her  delicate,  discriminating  sympathy  and  keen 
interest  and  earnest  good  will  so  went  out  to  every  human  being  that  they  were 
as  a  magnetic  current,  lifting  their  object  to  a  higher  plane  of  living  and  revealing 
to  him  a  truer  purpose  in  life.  She  inspired  one  with  an  aim  even  if  he  had  not 
heretofore  held  before  himself  definite  ideals.  Nor  was  this  done  consciously, 
with  any  attitudinizing  in  the  role  of  counselor,  but  it  was  rather  the  unconscious 


398  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

effect  of  her  noble  personality.  There  was  always  about  her  an  atmosphere  of 
angelic  purity,  as  of  one  a  little  apart  from  the  common  ways  of  life  —  not  in  the 
least  an  aloofness  or  abstraction,  for  her  interest  in  everyone  who  came  near  her 
was  greater  than  are  even  the  usual  friendships  of  social  contact.  The  truth  is 
that  she  was  more  alive  than  most  people  with  that  larger  and  more  intense  life  of 
the  spirit.  No  other  American  woman  ever  inspired  such  universal  love;  and 
still  it  is  equally  true,  though  it  seem  a  paradox,  that  no  woman  has  been  less 
adequately  interpreted,  simply  in  that  she  was  far  greater  than  was  realized. 
Frances  Willard  lived,  literally,  the  Christ-life  on  earth.  She  was  more  divine 
than  human,  more  spiritual  than  temporal,  in  the  qualities  of  her  character. 
In  meeting  Miss  Willard  one  could  hardly  fail  to  recall  Spenser's  lines: 

"  For  of  the  soul  the  body  form  doth  take; 
For  soul  is  form,  and  doth  the  body  make." 

The  slender  figure,  the  Madonna-like  face  with  the  deep  blue  eyes  and  the 
framing  of  golden-brown  hair;  the  serene  radiance  and  radiant  serenity;  the  per- 
fect refinement  and  gracious  sweetness  of  her  manner  —  that  gentle,  strong  and 
illumined  presence  —  never  can  that  picture  fade  from  our  hearts  ! 

Boston,  Mass.  LILLIAN  WHITING. 

A  much  holier  war,  and  with  weapons  much  diviner  than  all  of  which  bloody 
battlefields  and  crimson  oceans  have  felt  the  withering  fury,  calls  for  volunteers  in 
our  very  land.  It  is  the  battle  against  the  ignorance  of  the  people  and  its  slavery 
to  demons  that  sap  its  virility  and  undermine  its  virtues.  One  heroine  in  this 
fight,  a  woman  of  light  and  leading,  has  passed  to  her  reward.  Many  of  us,  and 
I  among  them,  do  not  accept  her  manual  of  arms.  Our  strategy  does  not  follow 
hers.  But  even  we  would  be  untrue  to  the  best  that  stirs  within  us  would  we 
withhold  from  her  the  tribute  due  to  her  matchless  devotion  to  high  ideals.  Miss 
Willard  loved  her  kind  with  a  love  that  passed  understanding.  And  this  love  it 
was  that  sent  her  out  a  soldier  to  the  battle.  We,  too,  remember  her  among  the 
torchbearers  and  the  leaders. 

Chicago.  RABBI  EMIL  G.  HIRSCH. 


Frances  E.  Willard  belonged  to  the  twentieth  century  rather  than  to  the 
nineteenth,  and  appreciation  of  her  will  increase  as  the  race  advances.  It  was 
not  simply  her  brilliant  intellect  and  splendid  courage,  but  her  genuine  womanli- 
ness which  enabled  her  to  win  the  hearts  of  all.  Her  title  to  heavenly  fame  is  the 
fact  that  she  left  the  world  better  than  she  found  it.  The  Ohio  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity is  proud  to  have  conferred  upon  her,  along  with  William  McKinley  and 
Bishops  Thoburn  and  Warren,  the  degree  of  LL.  D.  in  1894. 

Delaware,  Ohio.  REV.  J.  W.  BASHFORD,  D.D. 

Pres.  Ohio  Wesleyan  University, 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES—  TRIBUTES 


399 


Every  great  leader  is  judged  by  his  or  her  symbols  and  watchwords,  and 
when  Frances  Willard,  having  fused  the  great  world-embracing  sympathies  of  the 
divinest  spirits  who  have  blessed  our  planet,  intoned  with  her  strangely  sym- 
pathetic voice  the  Christlike  message,  "For  God,  and  home,  and  every  land" 
she  met  a  response  from  religionists,  home-makers  and  patriots  throughout  the 
world  —  from  worshipers  of  God  and  lovers  of  man. 

Perhaps  all  do  not  recognize  the  mystic  power  of  that  trinity  of  truths,  for 
God,  and  home,  and  every  land.  As  we  glimpse  the  enchanting  vision  of  the  jiew 
heavens  and  the  new  earth,  and  recognize  the  truth  that  "  the  little  children  are 
to  lead  us  into  the  kingdom  of  Heaven,"  Miss  Willard  seems  to  be  a  veritable 
John  the  Baptist,  and  the  beloved  disciple,  announcing  the  nearer  approach  of 
the  message  of  the  Madonna,  as,  holding  the  divine  child  aloft,  the  holy  mother 
proclaims  the  divinity  of  humanity — the  parenthood,  not  fatherhood  alone,  or 
motherhood  alone,  but  the  parenthood  of  the  Creator  and  the  familyhood  of  the 
created. 

When  a  great  soul  conies  to  earth  to  do  a  special  work,  Infinite  wisdom 
prepares  the  environment  and  the  opportunity.  Those  of  us  who  knew,  loved 
and  appreciated  Madam  Willard,  recognize  the  rich  heritage  she  bestowed  upon 
her  daughter. 

Believing  as  we  do  that  the  Creator  has  chosen  to  manifest  Himself  as  Wis- 
dom, Love  and  Beauty,  and  recognizing  beauty  as  a  mighty  force  in  the  world, 
we  were  so  glad  to  have  that  final  message  to  the  world,  ' '  How  beautiful  it  is 
to  be  with  God ' ' ;  since  through  recognition  of  this  sublime  truth,  is  art,  music, 
literature  and  education  to  receive  its  baptismal  touch. ' ' 

We  seem  to  catch  the  vibrations  of  her  joy,  as  she  recognizes,  with  spiritual 
vision,  the  approach  of  a  great  army  of  wonder  workers.  They  come,  fearing 
no  opposition  to  their  constructive  work,  dreading  no  defeat,  but  conscious  of 
complete  final  victory  of  truth  and  faith  and  love  and  joy.  They  come  with  a 
dauntless  courage,  an  inspiring  faith,  a  radiant  hope,  because  they  have  heard  the 
celestial  harmonies  of  the  angelic  chorus,  inhaled  the  fragrance  of  the  lilies  of 
the  new  annunciation,  and  felt  the  baptismal  touch  of  the  new  name  upon  their 
foreheads. 

They  believe  that  the  new  day  has  dawned,  the  new  age  is  here.  Its  herald 
is  peace;  its  trumpeter  is  joy;  its  angels  are  love,  wisdom  and  beauty;  its  ideals 
are  development,  opportunity,  service  and  co-operation;  while  the  inspiration  of 
hope  and  faith,  and  the  basis  of  its  ministry  is  the  organization  of  the  inhabitants 
of  earth  into  one  happy,  harmonious  family. 

Evanston,  111.  ELIZABETH  BOYNTON  HARBERT. 


Saint  Frances  was  truly  one  of  those  who  in  life,  in  death,  in  resurrection, 
followed  the  Lord;  she  was  the  spotless  sainted  queen  of  womankind  of  whom 


400  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

we  may  well  be  proud  and  thank  God  for  having  raised  such  a  mighty  ruler  of 
the  World's  Women's  Republic.  She  was  a  miracle  of  Christ  in  this  nineteenth 
century,  for  the  more  we  see  the  state  of  women  in  Christless  countries  the  more 
do  we  realize  that  none  but  Christ  could  have  raised  woman  to  such  a  high  posi- 
tion as  was  occupied  by  her.  What  wisdom;  what  a  spirit  of  understanding; 
what  a  power  to  rule  not  only  a  small  body  but  the  whole  world;  and,  above  all, 
what  sublime  Christlike  love  and  humility  did  our  beloved  leader  possess! 

Under  her  leadership,  kingdom  after  kingdom  was  conquered  until  the  whole 
world  was  encircled  with  the  band  of  love  and  her  white  standard  of  peace  was 
planted  in  every  land.  Her  standard  shall  never  fall,  her  dynasty  shall  never 
die,  and  her  memory  shall  never  be  wiped  away  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  The 
mother  of  Reform;  the  brave  champion  of  the  oppressed;  the  great  leader  and 
queen  of  womankind. 

Poona,  India.  THE  PUNDITA  RAMABAI. 


It  is  chiefly  through  Miss  Willard's  extraordinary  power  of  leadership  that 
the  World's  W.  C.  T.  U.  is  the  most  widely  established  and  powerful  woman's 
organization  in  the  world.  No  organization  ever  had  a  more  capable  leader. 
She  possessed  in  an  unequaled  degree  the  power  of  overcoming  difficulties  and 
turning  them  into  successes.  She  inspired  those  who  worked  with  her  with  confi- 
dence and  faith;  ever  quick  to  recognize  all  indications  of  general  or  special 
power  in  those  she  met,  she  was  thus  continually  building  up  character,  an  essen- 
tial for  one  who  must  lead  a  great  movement.  Her  personal  magnetism  was 
indescribable,  and  to  this  charm  were  added  genius,  literary  skill  and  eloquence, 
all  in  the  highest  degree  of  development.  She  lived  high  above  all  hate,  and  was 
always  helping  those  who  ' '  were  climbing. ' '  No  woman  has  done  as  much  as 
Frances  Willard  to  make  the  world  a  wider  place  for  women.  She  won  the 
affection  and  admiration  of  millions  in  many  lands. 

She  did  not  believe  in  keeping  words  of  praise  only  to  breathe  them  into 
dead,  cold  ears,  leaving  the  thirsty  soul  to  go  through  life  unrefreshed  and  long- 
ing for  the  kind  words  which  are  so  plentifully  poured  upon  the  grave. 

She  loved  great  undertakings;  the  World's  W.  C.  T.  U.  was  the  greatest 
outcome  of  her  life.  Recently  White  Ribbon  missionaries  had  been  sent  to  Aus- 
tralia, Japan,  Egypt  and  Ceylon,  and  her  chief  desire  was  that  all  our  well  organ- 
ized countries  should  send  more  money,  so  that  we  could  respond  to  the  piteous 
appeals  from  Burmah,  Chile,  and  some  European  and  other  countries. 

The  day  she  died,  a  W.  C.  T.  U.  was  organized  by  one  of  our  World' s  mis- 
sionaries in  Jerusalem. 

Every  woman  has  lost  a  friend  by  the  death  of  Frances  Willard.  For  all 
time  her  influence  will  live.  The  light  of  her  character  was  more  than  anything 
she  ever  said.  She  had  a  Christlike  personality. 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  401 

White  Ribbon  women  will  now  all  over  the  world  work  more  than  ever  side 
by  side  in  "the  world's  larger  home "  which  she  helped  to  make. 

Ripley,  Derbyshire,  Eng.  AGNES  E.  SLACK, 

Secretary  World's  W.  C  T.  U. 


Miss  Willard  attained  to  a  greatness  which  has  been  attained  by  no  other 
woman  of  this  century.  What  were  the  materials  out  of  which  this  greatness 
was  evolved  ?  Two  words  contain  the  answer  —  character  and  genius,  and  the 
chiefest  of  these  was  character.  Her  genius  commanded  admiration,  but  her 
character  compelled  respect  and  love;  and  everyone  who  knew  her,  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest,  could  but  bow  down  before  this  compelling  power.  And 
herein  lies  the  especial  blessing  of  the  legacy  left  us  by  her  noble  and  inspiring  life. 
Her  genius  we  cannot  have,  but  her  character  we  may;  and  if  by  her  death  we 
should  all  learn  the  secret  of  this  rare  and  beautiful  character,  she  will  accomplish 
even  far  more  by  that  death  than  she  accomplished  while  living,  great  as  that  was. 

I  have  always  thought,  and  often  said,  that  she  was  the  most  Christlike 
woman  I  have  ever  met.  Not  that  she  impressed  you  as  being  what  might  be 
called  ' '  pious, ' '  which,  alas !  is  often  combined  with  a  great  deal  of  un-Christ- 
likeness;  but  she  impressed  you  as  being  good  through  and  through,  and  above 
all,  as  being  loved.  More  than  any  other  human  being  I  have  known  she  fulfilled 
that  marvelous  definition  of  love  in  i  Cor.  xiii:  Love  suffereth  long  and  is  kind, 
love  envieth  not,  seeketh  not  her  own,  is  not  easily  provoked,  thinketh  no  evil, 
rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity  but  rejoiceth  in  the  truth,  beareth  all  things,  believeth  all 
things,  hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all  things,  and,  chiefest  of  all,  never  faileth. 
This  was  Frances  Willard.  It  was  not  her  friends  only  whom  she  loved  in  this 
Christlike  fashion,  but  it  was  the  world;  not  human  beings  only,  but  humanity 
itself.  And  the  world  she  loved  after  this  manner  could  not  but  love  her  in 
return.  Although  never  an  actual  mother,  she  mothered  humanity,  and  all 
humanity  that  came  in  contact  with  her  rejoiced  in  her  mothering. 

She  was  my  intimate  personal  friend  for  twenty-five  years,  and  during  all 
that  time  I  can  truthfully  say  she  never  once  disappointed  my  ideal  of  love. 
With  her  judgment  I  sometimes  disagreed,  but  with  her  spirit  never.  She 
seemed  like  a  person  who  had,  as  some  one  expresses  it,  ' '  changed  eyes  with 
Christ."  She  looked  at  everything  and  everybody  through  His  eyes,  and  saw 
the  good,  and  not  the  evil,  in  all. 

The  wonderful  and  commanding  thing  about  her  was  that  she  did  not  possess 
her  views,  but  they  possessed  her;  they  were  herself.  She  was  the  greatest 
democrat  I  ever  knew,  not  because  she  advocated  any  especial  democratic 
measures,  although  she  did  this  abundantly;  but  because  she  literally  seemed  to 
know  no  difference  between  human  beings  on  account  of  any  outward  distinctions 
26 


402  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

of  class  or  money  or  social  position.  All  human  beings  were  to  her  the  children 
of  our  one  Father,  and  in  each  she  recognized  a  sister  or  a  brother.  She  was, 
therefore,  the  defender  of  all  who  were  oppressed  and  the  upholder  of  every 
forlorn  hope  in  reform. 

London,  Eng.  HANNAH  WHITALL  SMITH. 


We  have  come  together  to  offer  our  tribute  of  deep,  heart-felt  regret  for  the 
departure  of  the  loved  and  valued  presence  from  amongst  us,  but  also  to  assert 
that  there  must  surely  be  no  single  shadow  of  anything  like  despondency. 

There  can  be  no  despondency  with  those  who  believe;  we  have  no  cause  to 
mourn  over  the  ending  of  a  noble  life,  over  the  unclasping  of  the  sword,  the 
resting  of  the  Amazon  after  the  long  fight,  the  weary  gone  to  God. 

Miss  Willard's  personal  influence,  her  platform  gifts,  her  wonderful  power  of 
organization,  her  single-heartedness,  her  continuous  communion  with  the  Source 
of  all  power  are  really  the  reasons  why  that  institution,  the  W.  C.  T.  U. ,  is  now 
spread  over  the  whole  surface  of  the  civilized  world.  I  can  remember  when  I  was 
in  Philadelphia,  a  single  sentence  of  hers  being  repeated  to  me  which  made  a 
great  impression  on  my  mind.  It  was  during  the  liquor  war  in  Texas,  and 
whether  consciously  or  unconsciously,  she  almost  repeated  the  very  language  of 
one  of  her  opponents.  He  said:  "  We  are  bound  to  win.  We  have  the  drink- 
ing men  on  our  side;  we  have  the  foreigner  on  our  side;  we  have  money  on 
our  side  —  and  money  is  a  power,  and  don't  you  forget  it  !  "  A  few  days  later 
she  was  there  speaking  and  she  ended  her  oration  with  somewhat  similar  words: 
"We  are  bound  to  win.  We  have  the  sober  men  on  our  side;  we  have  the 
women  on  our  side;  we  have  God  on  our  side  —  and  God  is  a  power,  and  don't 
you  forget  it ! "  Let  us  also  remember  ' '  God  is  a  power,  and  don' t  you 
forget  it  !" 

Lest  we  forget,  lest  we  forget.  Do  you  not  believe  that  somehow,  not  to  be 
defined  by  us,  there  is  a  blending  of  spirit  with  spirit  —  soul  to  soul  —  mingling 
with  a  finer  element  than  its  own  ?  Would  she  not  give  you  this  day  that  mighty 
word,  "  God  is  a  power;  don't  you  forget  it"  ? 

The  work  she  leaves  behind  is  with  us,  the  laborer's  task  is  done;  but  the 
lesson  we  should  take  away  this  afternoon  is  this:  When  a  great  artery  is  liga- 
tured, it  is  the  duty  of  all  the  capillaries  to  take  on  the  work  of  the  great  artery; 
it  behooves  every  one  of  us  —  we  lesser  capillaries  and  veins  —  to  carry  on  the 
circulation  of  the  truth  she  spread  abroad,  so  that  humanity  shall  not  suffer. 
One  object  of  this  service  ought  to  be  that  we  each  of  us  dedicate  ourselves  defi- 
nitely afresh  to  the  work  to  which  she  gave  her  life. 

We  are  all  assured  of  the  irrefutable  immortality  of  the  soul  of  the  one  we 
loved,  and  know  that  she  has  reached  that  far  world  whither  we  are  all  bound. 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  403 

We  bless  Thy  holy  name,  O  Father,  for  all  Thy  servants  who  have  departed  this 
life  in  Thy  faith  and  fear,  and  especially  for  Thy  servant,  Frances  Willard, 
beseeching  Thee  to  give  us  grace  that  we  may  follow  their  good  example,  that 
we,  too,  may  inherit  the  Heavenly  Kingdom. 

London,  Eng.  THE  REV.  CANON  WILBERFORCE. 


Miss  Willard  set  a  very  noble  example  of  self-denying  labor  on  behalf  of  a 
great  cause,  and  she  showed  how  grand  a  work  may  be  achieved  by  a  single- 
hearted  toiler,  inspired  by  the  love  of  God  and  man. 

THE  REV.  F.  W.  FARRAR, 

Dean  of  Canterbury. 


Miss  Willard' s  sudden  death  is  a  great  shock,  and  it  must  be  a  grief  to  every- 
one wno  cares  for  the  progress  of  good  in  the  world.  We  shall  feel  it  here 
almost  as  much  as  will  our  American  friends,  for  of  late  years  we  had  been  famil- 
iarized with  her  splendid  work  and  were  able  to  some  extent  to  appreciate  it. 
The  losses  by  death  of  our  best  friends  within  a  very  limited  period,  have  of  late 
been  little  less  than  appalling.  It  seems  strange  that  they  should  have  been 
called  away,  just  when  the  common  enemy,  against  which  they  fought  so  nobly, 
is  apparently  stronger  than  ever.  Nevertheless,  their  labor  and  that  of  their  col- 
leagues have  laid  a  sure  foundation  for  ultimate  triumph,  and  whether  the  remain- 
ing conflict  be  long  or  short,  the  remembrance  of  what  they  have  been  and  done 
will  be  ever  to  us  an  abiding  comfort  and  encouragement. 

London,  Eng.  SIR  WILFRID  LAWSON,  Bart,  M.P. 


Miss  Frances  Willard,  whom  I  knew  in  public  life,  was  certainly  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  women  I  ever  met.  There  was  such  deep  earnestness,  such  a 
profound  sense  of  the  justice  of  her  cause  which  she  looked  upon  as  the  cause  of 
God.  She  never  seemed  to  waver  as  to  the  ultimate  victory  of  her  principle. 
There  was  also  a  wonderful  calmness,  indicating  a  pent  reserve  of  silent  strength. 
Her  intellectual  powers  were  of  a  high  order.  She  grasped  the  bearings  of  great 
questions  with  remarkable  power.  Her  oratory  was  of  a  convincing  character, 
her  speeches  were  apparently  well  prepared,  and  delivered  without  any  effort  or 
display.  They  were  often  eloquent  and  full  of  pathos.  The  good  work  she  has 
done  in  the  world  will  live  after  her,  and  her  memory  will  be  highly  cherished  by 
all  those  who  love  the  truth.  Her  loss  is  irreparable.  There  is  no  one  left  to  take 
her  place  exactly.  We  wait  God's  leisure  to  raise  up  another  woman  with  the 
same  deep  convictions,  energy  and  power.  The  world  needs  at  this  time  many 
such,  but,  in  the  providence  of  God,  these  have  never  failed  at  the  last  —  men 


4o4  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

and  women  to  hold  aloft  the  banner  of  truth  and  righteousness;  and  we  doubt 
not  that  many  arms  are  being  strengthened  for  the  valorous  work  of  God  in  time 
to  come. 

London.  REV.  CANON  BARKER. 


It  is  fitting  that  when  a  good  woman  such  as  Miss  Frances  Willard  passes  to 
her  rest  her  name  should  be  held  in  honor.  Miss  Willard  wielded  a  great  influ- 
ence on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  and  it  was  always  used  with  whole-hearted 
zeal  for  the  betterment  of  the  masses.  In  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  she  built  up  an  organization  which  gave  her  an  immense  power  in  com- 
bating the  evils  of  intemperance,  and  which  will,  let  us  hope,  long  continue  to 
carry  on  the  good  work.  As  its  leader  and  inspirer,  she  always  acted  in  a  broad 
and  kindly  spirit.  Catholic  temperance  leaders  in  the  United  States,  such  as 
Archbishop  Ireland,  were  among  her  warmest  friends,  and  if  Catholics  were  ever 
attacked  by  bigots  in  her  presence,  she  did  not  neglect  the  opportunity  of  vindi- 
cating them.  Her  life  was  devoted  to  the  cause  which  she  had  so  earnestly  at 
heart,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  her  career  was  shortened  by  her  devotion 
to  it. — Catholic  Times,  of  Liverpool,  England. 


I  never  had  the  privilege  of  knowing  Miss  Willard,  nor  did  I  ever  hear  her 
speak ;  but  I  followed  her  sayings  and  doings  with  the  deepest  interest.  She 
seemed  to  me  a  typical  representative  of  the  New  World  and  of  the  new  age  of 
womanhood.  She  was  entirely  the  woman  in  her  tenderness,  her  sympathy,  her 
habit  of  looking  at  people  and  things  in  the  concrete  and  not  in  the  abstract;  but 
at  the  same  time  she  exhibited  that  freedom  from  all  affectation  and  sentiment, 
that  strength  and  steadiness  of  judgment,  that  power  of  rejection  and  construc- 
tion which  we  too  often  claim  especially  for  the  masculine  mind.  Her  departure 
is  a  loss  to  almost  every  good  cause  which  makes  for  the  welfare  of  humanity. 

Pendleton,  Manchester.  REV.  CANON  HICKS. 


Of  all  the  women  I  have  known,  Frances  Willard  was  unquestionably  one  of 
the  very  ablest  as  well  as  one  of  the  very  best.  She  belonged  to  the  order  of 
great  women.  She  was  great  in  what  she  did,  greater  in  what  she  was.  Dow- 
ered in  amplest  measure  by  nature  with  those  faculties  and  capacities  which 
specially  minister  to  one's  own  enjoyment  of  everything  beautiful  in  nature,  in 
literature  and  in  art,  she  nevertheless  chose  the  somber-seeming  path  in  life  of 
the  social  reformer. 

Miss  Willard  possessed  the  perspicacity  to  discern  that  to  strive  for  social 
reform  without  solving  the  drink  problem  would  be  like  ' '  plowing  the  sand. ' ' 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  405 

Hence,  she  was  first  and  chiefly  a  temperance  reformer.  But  she  was  by  no 
means  a  woman  of  one  idea.  Indeed,  she  was  a  woman  of  many  ideas.  For 
example,  she  had  a  profound  and  special  interest  in  all  that  concerns  the  well- 
being  of  women.  Besides,  more  than  anyone  else,  she  was  responsible  for  an 
experiment  in  the  carrying  on  of  the  temperance  reformation  which,  it  is  true, 
has  led  to  much  debate  and  some  heartburning  among  women's  temperance 
associations  throughout  the  world,  but  which,  though  still  on  its  trial,  promises 
well.  Rightly  or  wrongly,  she  regarded  the  temperance  question  as  but  one  of 
a  number  of  closely  allied  social  problems  which  are  so  connected  that  they  can 
be  most  profitably  treated  when  studied  and  dealt  with  together;  and  she  more 
or  less  successfully  urged  on  the  societies  of  which  she  was  a  leader  the  adoption 
of  a  policy  giving  effect  to  her  convictions  on  this  subject.  But,  assuredly,  the 
conception  of  the  methods  by  which  she  impressed  her  own  beliefs  in  regard  to 
this  subject  on  such  masses  of  intelligent  women  in  the  United  States,  in  Great 
Britain  and  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  has  revealed  something  of  the  great 
scope  and  force  of  her  intellect;  while  the  manner  in  which,  and  the  extent  to 
which,  these  methods  were  brought  into  successful  operation  have  demonstrated 
her  to  have  been  one  of  the  most  capable  of  organizers  and  administrators. 
Manchester,  Eng.  JAMES  WHYTE, 

Secretary  of  the  United  Kingdom  Alliance. 


Frances  Willard  was  a  woman  of  fine  gifts.  She  had  the  insight  of  a  seer, 
the  heart  of  a  philanthropist,  the  courage  of  a  crusader,  the  organizing  ability  of 
a  trained  engineer,  the  enthusiasm  of  a  missionary,  the  pen  of  a  journalist,  the 
tongue  of  a  skilled  orator,  and  the  purity  of  a  saint.  She  was  a  typical  woman 
worker  in  the  completeness  of  her  consecration  to  Christ;  in  her  piercing  insight 
into,  and  accurate  interpretation  of,  the  condition  of  the  people;  in  the  fineness 
of  her  courage  and  the  breadth  of  her  sympathy;  in  her  capacity  for  leadership, 
and  in  the  whole-hearted  use  she  made  of  her  life  for  others.  She  takes  higher 
rank  in  the  social  service  of  mankind  than  Mrs.  Somerville  in  mathematics, 
Jenny  Lind  in  song,  George  Eliot  in  literature,  Adelaide  Anna  Proctor  in  poetry. 
Surely  we  may  say,  ' '  Many  daughters  have  done  virtuously,  but  thou  excellest 
them  all!" 

London,  Eng.  REV.  JOHN  CLIFFORD,  M.A.,  D.D., 

President  of  the  National  Council  of  Evangelical  Free  Churches  of  London 


Frances  Willard  stood  for  the  capacity  of  women  to  do,  to  act,  to  plan  all 
by  their  lone  selves.  She  might  have  done  more  for  temperance  and  other 
causes  if  she  had  allowed  men  to  work  in  the  W.  C.  T.  U. ,  but  she  would  have 
done  less  for  women.  It  was  her  great  work  —  teaching  women  that  they  could  do 


406  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

things  by  themselves.  Women  who  knew,  and  those  more  numerous  who  felt 
the  significance  of  the  stand  she  made,  felt  toward  her  a  devotion  which  no  mere 
apostolate  of  temperance  could  have  evoked. 

She  was  an  abler  woman  in  the  minutiae  of  organization  than  was  generally 
believed.  She  had  great  tact  in  managing  people,  in  making  them  do  what 
it  was  necessary  they  should  do,  while  making  them  imagine  they  were  doing  it 
of  their  own  free  will.  She  was  very  tender-hearted  and  sympathetic.  She  had 
the  greatest  gift  —  a  gift  amounting  to  a  perfect  genius  —  for  inspiring  those  who 
worked  with  her  with  the  most  absolute  belief  in  her  cause,  and  in  her  as  its 
exponent.  Those  who  gathered  round  her  were  women  of  all  kinds  of  thought 
and  character.  But  one  and  all  believed  in  Miss  Willard  against  the  world. 
There  was  something  that  was  very  touching  in  the  way  in  which  she  made  you 
feel  that  God  needed  you.  She  seemed  to  see  things  so  clearly  herself  that 
somehow  you  could  not  help  seeing  them  as  she  did.  The  secret  of  her  great 
hold  upon  her  staff  was  not  alone  her  personal  charm,  the  magnetic  influence;  it 
was  that  she  was  the  truth,  and  you  could  not  go  against  her  without  antagoniz- 
ing the  truth. 

That  was  the  first  secret  and  the  greatest.  The  second  was  the  same  which 
appealed  to  many  who  never  met  her  personally.  She  had  a  great  cause.  When 
I  compare  her  with  other  women  I  think  she  is  conspicuous  for  steadfastness. 
There  was  about  her  a  steady  determination  that  made  you  see  that  when  the  prin- 
ciple was  touched  she  was  iron  all  through.  If  she  had  not  been  iron  she  would 
have  bent  or  broken;  she  did  neither,  she  stood  erect,  and  we  all  learned  to 
regard  her  as  the  pillar  of  strength  in  the  midst  of  all  perils. 

London,  Eng.  W.  T.  STEAD. 


I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  Miss  Willard  on  several  occasions,  and  she 
always  seemed  to  me  a  woman  of  remarkable  intellectual  power,  broad  in  her 
sympathies,  with  a  warm  and  loving  heart,  and  an  enthusiastic  devotion  for  all 
that  is  true  and  good  and  noble.  As  a  speaker  of  the  highest  order,  and  as  a 
worker  and  organizer  of  remarkable  skill,  she  was  a  pillar  of  strength  to  the 
movement,  and  one  of  its  brightest  ornaments.  It  was  very  pleasing  to  learn  in 
conversation  with  her,  of  her  deep  interest  in  temperance  work  among  children. 
She  recognized  the  truth  that  the  training  of  the  young  in  habits  of  sobriety  and 
purity  is  the  best  means  of  raising  a  nation's  moral  standard.  I  think  it  was  the 
last  time  I  had  the  pleasure  of  talking  to  her  that  she  said,  taking  my  hand  to 
say  good-by,  ' '  Mr.  Wakeley,  you  are  on  the  right  lines.  If  the  drink  traffic  is 
to  go  down,  we  must  get  hold  of  the  young." 

I  think  all  have  felt  that  Miss  Willard  was  essentially  a  steward  of  ' '  five 
talents,"  all  well  used  in  the  service  of  God  and  of  Humanity.  The  words  of 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  407 

the  slothful  and  unprofitable  servant,  "I  was  afraid,"  never  existed  in  her 
vocabulary.  She  realized  that  time  waits  neither  for  man  nor  woman,  that  the 
world  is  saved  or  lost  by  individuals,  and  so  she  was  intensely  real,  intensely 
earnest,  and  intensely  determined  to  leave  the  world  better  than  she  found  it. 
Under  her  leadership  the  women's  division  of  the  army  of  temperance  has  made 
mighty  advances,  and  where  shall  we  look  for  a  General  to  fill  her  place  ?  May 
God  raise  up  women  of  zeal  and  courage  to  fitly  occupy  the  post  she  has  vacated. 
The  movement  will  not  want  for  valiant  soldiers  if  they  are  found  good  and  wise 
leaders;  and  for  the  young  who  are  pressing  into  the  foremost  ranks,  no  more 
fitting  model  can  be  presented  than  the  leader  whose  loss  we  now  mourn. 

A  leader  indeed  in  temperance  warfare  has  gone;  the  faithful  teacher's  work 
on  earth  has  closed,  but  the  loving  presence  and  the  earnest  voice  will  still  plead 

with  her  sisters  who  remain  to  work  with  undivided  faith  and  courage  ' '  for  God, 

and  Home,  and  Every  Land." 

MR.  CHARLES  WAKELEY, 
General  Secretary  of  the  United  Kingdom  Band  of  Hope  Union. 


Miss  Willard  has  always  been  in  my  mind  and  heart  as  a  saint,  a  veritable 
Ray  of  Love  from  above;  and  as  a  talker  alone  I  have  never  met  her  equal, 
except  John  Richard  Green.  Her  loss  to  the  world,  and  to  Lady  Henry  Som- 
erset as  President  of  the  B.  W.  T.  A. ,  are  two  great  blows  to  me. 

London,  Eng.  MRS.  HAWEIS. 

It  was,  I  think,  in  1892  that  Miss  Willard  first  made  the  personal  acquaint- 
ance in  London  of  many  members  of  the  Fabian  Society.  I  remember  being 
struck  by  her  large-minded  sympathy  with  the  work  of  those  who  were  fighting 
battles  on  lines  somewhat  differently  drawn  from  those  on  which  she  had  hitherto 
been  engaged.  Nor  did  she  start  back  in  nervous  apprehension,  as  so  many  of 
her  countrymen  do  at  the  name  of  Socialism.  Miss  Willard  had  fought  too 
many  hard  fights  for  the  weak  and  the  downtrodden  not  to  know  that  every 
good  cause,  from  Christianity  itself  down  to  the  social  reform  movement  of 
today,  is  promptly  confused  by  its  enemies  with  violence,  incendiarism  and  the 
breaking  up  of  laws.  She  found  herself  in  close  sympathy  with  the  principles, 
objects  and  methods  of  the  English  Socialists,  as  represented  by  the  Fabian 
Society,  and  in  August,  1893,  she,  spontaneously  and  unsolicited,  applied  for 
membership,  signed  the  Society's  "basis"  and  continued  until  her  death  to  send 
her  annual  contribution  to  the  Society's  funds. 

Unlike  so  many  temperance  workers,  Miss  Willard  threw  herself  with 
equal  zeal  into  the  abolition  of  the  sweating  system  or  the  rehousing  of  the 
poor  of  our  great  cities,  for  she  saw  that  in  the  absence  of  decent  homes  and 


408  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

living  wages,  no  amount  of  preaching  or  prohibition  would  put  down  drunken- 
ness. The  emancipation  and  elevation  of  women  took  a  leading  place  in  her 
life;  but  she  never  supposed  that  women  could  be  elevated  without  raising 
the  men  at  the  same  time  to  a  higher  level.  What  she  strove  for,  in  fact, 
was  not  personal  holiness,  temperance  or  women's  rights,  but  the  progress  of 
humanity.  However  keenly  she  distinguished  the  particular  trees,  she  always 
retained  a  perfectly  clear  vision  of  the  whole  forest  of  which  they  formed  but 
insignificant  parts. 

London,  Eng.  SIDNEY  WEBB. 


Ten  years  ago  this  month  (March,  1898)  I  saw  Frances  Willard  for  the  first 
time.  It  was  at  an  immense  Sunday  afternoon  meeting  in  the  largest  chapel  in 
Washington,  D.  C,  and  every  inch  of  standing  room  was  packed  with  people 
who  had  come  to  hear  one  of  America's  greatest  women  speak  on  a  great  theme, 
namely,  that  of  personal  and  social  purity.  I  set  out  to  hear  Frances  Willard 
because  of  what  others  told  me  of  her  wonderful  speaking,  but  not  because  I 
admired  or  loved  her  as  yet. 

It  was  with  no  preconceived  notions  about  her,  either  as  a  woman  or  a  leader 
of  women,  that  I  listened  to  her  that  Sunday  afternoon;  and  it  was  well  for  my 
unbiased  judgment  that  it  was  so,  for  I  have  never  altered  the  estimate  of  her 
received  almost  unconsciously  while  she  was  speaking. 

First  of  all,  her  sweet,  calm  face,  clear-cut  and  good;  her  dignified  manner, 
in  which  there  was  not  a  trace  of  assumption,  gave  me  a  most  cordial  feeling  of  swift 
personal  attraction  to  her.  Next,  the  power  and  ease  with  which  the  opening 
sentences  of  her  address  were  given  put  all  the  usual  misgivings  one  feels  about 
a  speaker's  nervousness  or  ability  to  hold  an  audience,  out  of  court  entirely;  and 
listening  by  itself  became  an  increasing  pleasure  as  she  went  on.  By  and  by  I 
found  myself  crying  naturally  and  freely  over  words  that  ran  in  my  memory  as 
follows:  "Nay,  brothers  all,  that  poor  betrayed  girl  thought  she  was  stepping 
out  along  the  road  to  Heaven,  and  lo!  when  her  lover  forsook  her  and  fled  she 
found  too  late  it  was  the  path  to  Gethsemane  and  the  Calvary  of  Motherhood  ! ' ' 

There  was  no  need  to  cover  one's  tears  up  for  shame,  for  everyone,  man  or 
woman,  was  weeping  and  sobbing  in  that  great  audience.  There  was  a  wonderful 
epigrammatic  finish  of  pregnant  sentences.  Now  and  again  some  quiet  humorous 
thrust  like  a  rapier  for  fineness,  or  a  witty  sally  relieved  the  tension  of  long-drawn 
pathos,  but  never  for  an  instant  did  it  seem  incongruous  or  hostile  to  the  delicacy 
of  the  subject  dealt  with,  or  turn  the  audience  from  the  point  at  issue. 

We  exchanged  our  first  greetings  in  the  vestry  afterwards,  and  I  tried  in  my 
overwhelming  gratitude  to  thank  her  for  the  uplift  she  had  given  me.  "  Dear 
little  English  sister, ' '  she  said,  ' '  you  can' t  think  how  pleased  and  proud  I  was 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  409 

to  see  you  in  front  of  me."  This  little  episode  was  typical  of  the  greatness  of 
soul  that  enabled  Frances  Willard  so  instantaneously  and  spontaneously  to  say 
the  best  thing  in  the  best  way  at  the  best  time. 

"  God  is  wider  than  the  world,"  she  once  said  to  me,  "and  the  mistake  is 
that  the  folks  who  are  not  wider  than  their  own  backyard  are  trying  so  hard  to 
cut  Him  down  to  their  size! " 

It  will  always  be  a  source  of  unspeakable  comfort  and  satisfaction  to  me  to 
think  of  the  personal  fellowship  realized  at  intervals  through  ten  wonderful  years 
of  happiest  work  with  this  great  and  beautiful  soul. 

London,  Eng.  MRS.  ORMISTON  CHANT. 


Miss  Willard  was  a  remarkable  woman  —  more  remarkable  than  any  other 
temperance  apostle  of  her  time.  But  to  describe  her  simply  as  a  temperance 
apostle  is  to  only  mention  a  single  feature  of  her  many-sided  work.  Yet  in  that 
particular  phase  of  work  her  influence  in  America  has  been  immeasurably  greater 
than  that  of  any  other  woman,  and  not  less  great  than  that  of  any  man,  Neal  Dow 
and  John  B.  Gough  not  excepted.  Just  as  these  were  unique  in  their  spheres, 
she  was  unique  in  her  sphere  —  her  still  wider  sphere.  She  was  a  talented 
student  —  well  read  in  all  phases  of  the  work.  Starting  to  organize  the  women 
of  the  American  Republic,  an  emotional  and  difficult  element  to  organize  and 
keep  going,  she  gathered  around  her  the  ablest,  bravest  and  best;  and  to  a  degree 
never  before  dreamt  of,  she  kept  them  together,  her  wonderfully  perceptive 
faculties  enabling  her  to  select  colleagues  and  departmental  superintendents 
peculiarly  fitted  for  their  particular  duties.  Her  policy  was  a  "  Do  Everything ' ' 
one  —  a  policy  evoking  admiration  even  from  those  who  deemed  it  inexpedient, 
and  a  policy  which  only  a  truly  great  woman  could  have  ' '  mothered  ' '  in  the  way 
she  did. 

She  has  done  more  than  anyone  since  the  days  of  slavery  to  put  a  new  soul 
into  American  politics,  and  to  make  her  sex  the  undying  enemies  of  the  liquor 
traffic; -and  has  so  organized  the  workers  that  the  great  machinery  will  go  rolling 
on  almost  or  quite  unchecked  by  her  withdrawal  —  although  there  is  no  one  per- 
son who  can  really  replace  her.  God  buries  the  workers,  but  His  work  goes  on. 

London,  Eng.  COUNCILLOR  JOSEPH  MALINS, 

Chief  Templar  of  England  and  Chief  of  the  International 
Supreme  Lodge  of  the  Good  Templar  Order. 


From  following  Miss  Willard' s  work  and  reading  her  utterances  and  writings 
I  had  formed  a  very  high  opinion  of  the  great  leader  of  women's  work  for  social 
reform.  My  ideas  of  this  splendid  and  unique  personality  were  more  than  con- 
firmed when  I  had  the  privilege  of  seeing  and  hearing  her. 


410  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Miss  Willard  was  a  gifted  orator,  and  when  she  kindled  into  her  loftiest 
oratorical  vein,  it  was  simply  magnificent.  She  knew,  as  few  speakers  have 
done,  how  to  feel  the  pulse  of  her  audience,  and  how  to  catch  the  breezes  of 
emotion  that  swept  through  it,  and  at  such  times  she  swayed  the  multitude  as 
she  pleased,  and  roused  them  to  the  highest  pitch  of  enthusiasm.  She  had  a 
strong  and  massive  intellect  disciplined  by  high  culture,  and  in  all  her  speaking 
she  had  something  to  say  worth  remembering.  Her  orations  were  deep,  earnest 
thought,  kindled  to  a  white  heat  by  a  soul  set  on  fire  with  the  love  of  God. 

The  thing,  however,  which  most  impressed  me  in  this  noble  lady  was  that 
she  possessed  a  gift  of  statesmanship  such  as  has  been  bestowed  on  very  few. 
She  constructed  and  controlled  vast  organizations,  and  sent  her  own  enthusiasm 
vibrating  through  them  to  their  very  extremities.  She  was  always  ready  boldly 
to  assert  her  convictions,  no  matter  how  much  they  might  be  against  the  popular 
prejudices;  and  she  had  the  skill  to  put  her  ideas  into  practical  shape,  and  to 
weld  others  together  in  a  union  for  their  accomplishment.  Never  shall  I  forget 
the  impression  that  was  made  upon  me  concerning  Miss  Willard' s  gifts  of  states- 
manship when  I  saw  her  in  the  chair  of  the  great  assemblies  of  the  World's 
Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union  in  London.  It  has  been  my  privilege  to 
see  the  conduct  in  the  chair  of  some  of  the  most  eminent  and  renowned  chair- 
men. I  never  saw  anyone  excel  Miss  Willard.  Her  knowledge  of  the  rules  for 
the  conduct  of  such  conferences  was  perfect.  She  had  them  at  her  fingers'  ends 
and  she  guided  the  debates,  sometimes  through  very  stormy  seas,  with  a  tact 
and  good  humor  which  displayed  great  knowledge  of  human  nature  and  wonder- 
ful capacity  for  government.  She  swayed  the  scepter  with  immovable  firmness, 
and  yet,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  with  scarcely  any  manifestation  of  the  fact  that  she 
was  ruling.  Her  expression  of  face,  her  tones,  and  the  spirit  pervading  all  her 
utterances  made  you  feel  that  she  was  a  woman  of  God,  and  that  the  inspiration 
of  all  her  work  was  from  on  high.  A  true  Methodist,  catholicity  was  her  watch- 
word. Adopting  John  Wesley's  motto,  she  was  "the  friend  of  all  and  the 
enemy  of  none."  Loyal  in  her  devotion  to  her  own  church,  there  was  neverthe- 
less no  sectarian  stamp  upon  her  work. 

London,  Eng.          THE  REV.  G.  ARMSTRONG  BENNETTS,  B.A., 

General  Secretary  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Temperance  Committee. 


It  was  my  great  privilege  to  have  been  on  more  than  one  occasion  with  Miss 
Frances  E.  Willard  on  a  temperance  platform,  and  I  am  therefore  able  to  speak 
of  the  fervid  eloquence  which  often  produced  an  electrifying  effect  on  the  large 
audiences  she  addressed  in  this  country.  It  was  not  merely  that  she  had  a  great 
command  of  language,  that  her  imagination  was  fruitful  and  creative,  her  style 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  411 

vigorous,  original,  abounding  in  felicities  of  expression  and  combining  judgment 
and  sensibility  in  a  remarkable  degree,  which  placed  her  in  the  very  forefront  of 
orators  of  the  present  day,  whether  among  men  or  women ;  but  it  was  the  intense 
earnestness  and  religious  zeal  which  showed  her  utterances  came  straight  from 
the  heart,  which  carried  conviction  to  her  hearers.  She  made  no  compromise 
with  the  evil  thing,  whilst  at  the  same  time  she  felt  deeply  for  the  wretched  vic- 
tim of  evil.  To  the  rescue  of  suffering  and  sinful  humanity  she  devoted  all  her 
energies  and  time.  As  she  says  in  that  remarkable  address  delivered  to  the 
National  W.  C.  T.  U.  at  Buffalo  last  October,  and  which  I  received  from  her  not 
very  long  before  her  death,  ' '  We  shall  never  climb  to  heaven  by  making  it  our 
lifelong  business  to  save  ourselves.  The  process  is  too  selfish;  the  motto  of  the 
true  Christian  is  coming  to  be,  '  All  for  each  and  each  for  all, '  and  in  the  honest 
purpose  to  realize  its  everyday  meaning  we  acquire  '  a  heart  at  leisure  from  itself,' 
and  in  no  other  way. ' '  The  amount  of  work  Miss  Willard  managed  to  get  through 
was  simply  amazing,  and  when  we  consider  that  this  had  been  going  on  for  nearly 
twenty-five  years  —  i.e.,  since  that  wonderful  Women's  Crusade  at  Hillsboro, 
Ohio,  in  1873  —  we  cannot  be  surprised  at  her  having  overtaxed  her  strength 
and  thus  sacrificed  her  life  to  the  great  cause  she  ever  had  at  heart.  She  lived 
and  died  the  lover  of  her  kind  and  the  admiration  of  her  friends.  We  may  indeed 
mourn  her  loss,  but  we  have  the  consolation  of  knowing  that  her  labor  has  not 
been  in  vain  and  that  she  was  prepared  to  obey  the  summons,  ' '  the  Master  has 
come  and  calleth  for  thee " ;  for  these  striking  words  occur  in  her  last  address 
(alluded  to  above).  "  There  will  come  a  day  when  we  shall  utter  these  words 
back  again,  '  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit,'  and  then  the  mystery  of  life,  its  dis- 
cipline, its  joys  and  grief,  will  end  and  the  glad  mystery  of  death  will  work  out 
the  transfer  to  other  realms  of  the  Infinite  Power. ' ' 

THE  VERY  REV.  DEAN  LEIGH. 
The  Deanery,  Hereford,  March  6,  1898. 


I  labor  under  the  obvious  disadvantage  of  not  having  heard  Miss  Willard 
speak  in  public.  I  am  assured  by  those  who  have  heard  her  that  this  is  a  very 
great  disadvantage  indeed;  and  I  regard  the  assurance  as  a  high  compliment  to  the 
wisdom  and  eloquence  of  that  gifted  speaker.  I  gladly  accept  the  invitation  to 
write  a  line  or  two  as  to  impressions  received  from  her  conversation,  and  from 
a  perusal  of  some  of  her  notable  public  utterances.  If  I  were  called  upon  to  use 
one  word,  and  one  word  only,  as  expressing  my  estimate  of  Miss  Willard,  I 
should  chose  the  word  ' '  refinement, ' '  or  the  word  ' '  delicacy. "  I  am  well  aware 
that  such  words  as  energetic,  eloquent,  masterly,  and  highly  informed,  might  be 
used  with  great  propriety;  yet  if  I  were  driven  to  one  word  I  should  say  that 


412  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

Miss  Willard  was  consummately  and  sensitively  refined.  Everything  about  her 
bespoke  intellectual  and  spiritual  delicacy.  It  would  be  no  effort  to  her  to  be 
eloquent  and  rhythmic  in  public  speech,  but  it  would  be  an  effort,  altogether 
beyond  her  accomplishment,  to  use  either  careless  or  unbalanced  language.  To 
some  speakers  and  writers  violent  expletives  occur  quite  naturally,  and  are  used 
without  a  proper  estimate  of  their  real  roughness  and  almost  vulgarity.  Such 
expletives  would  simply  never  occur  to  a  mind  so  high-toned  and  so  instinct  with 
the  very  spirit  of  accuracy  as  was  Miss  Willard' s.  I  question  whether  she  ever 
revised  a  speech  with  a  view  to  moderating  its  language,  because  it  was  simply 
natural  to  her  to  find  exquisite  language  for  exquisite  thinking.  It  is  needless  to 
say  that  Miss  Willard  had  no  talent  for  abuse.  She  never  villified  an  opponent. 
Even  when  she  wrote  under  the  spur  of  pain  and  disappointment,  her  case  lost 
nothing  by  unfitness  of  expression.  Emphatically  her  strength  was  in  her  mod- 
eration. How  pictorial  she  was  in  all  her  exposition  and  argument!  Even  where 
there  was  no  attempt  at  pictorial  representation,  it  was  impossible  for  the  mind 
to  follow  her  reasoning  and  her  illustrations  without  investing  their  development 
with  pictorial  color  and  expressiveness.  In  reading  her  speeches  I  seem  to  be 
walking  over  landscape  of  hill  and  dale,  wood  and  water,  and  to  be  hearing  an 
accompaniment  of  singing  birds,  as  her  fluent  periods  roll  on  with  measured 
statelmess.  The  motive  power  of  this  gifted  woman  seemed  to  be  the  very  spirit 
of  divinest  love.  She  did  not  want  everybody  to  be  happy,  she  wanted  every- 
body to  be  good,  knowing  that  goodness  brings  its  own  satisfaction  and  delight. 
Miss  Willard  was  no  mechanical  reformer,  she  did  not  handle  things  from  the 
outside;  she  was  profoundly  assured  of  God's  love  to  all  mankind,  and  she  wished 
all  mankind  to  realize  that  supreme  and  all-redeeming  and  all-stimulating  fact. 
No  one  could  be  long  with  Miss  Willard  either  socially  or  in  communion 
with  her  books,  without  being  impressed  by  her  tender  womanliness.  A  thorough 
scholar,  an  alert  politician,  a  well-instructed  philosopher,  and  a  commanding 
public  advocate,  she  was  as  simple  as  a  little  child,  and  as  womanly  as  a  mother 
who  lives  exclusively  in  the  affections  of  her  children.  The  touch  of  her  hand, 
the  subdued  and  almost  tremulous  music  of  her  voice,  her  benign  expression  of 
countenance,  her  solicitous  look  of  wonder  and  of  yearning,  were  all  so  many 
evidences  of  a  great,  warm,  tender  heart.  Little  children  ran  to  her  as  if  by 
right.  Old  age  looked  up  to  her  with  assured  and  eager  expectancy.  Her  pres- 
ence in  the  house  gave  the  sufferer  strength  and  courage  under  the  sting  of  pain 
and  the  cloud  of  grief.  So  great  an  example  of  everything  lovely  and  noble  can- 
not be  lost.  It  must  live  forever  as  one  of  the  ministries  adopted  by  God  to 
assist  in  the  regeneration  and  sanctification  of  the  world.  I  conclude  this  brief 
reference  by  quoting  a  sonnet  written  by  my  wife  which  clearly  expresses  my 
feeling  as  to  the  loss  of  visible  leadership,  and  personal  magnetism,  which  the 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES— TRIBUTES  413 

world  has  sustained  by  the  death  of  the  beautiful,  gracious,  unselfish  ana  great- 
hearted as  well  as  great-minded  Frances  Willard. 

"  Frances  Willard  is  dead !  is  dead !  is  dead ! 
Ring  out  the  woful  news  on  every  wind 
And  fill  with  grief  the  bosom  of  mankind. 
Not  for  one  land  she  lived,  her  love  heav'n  fed, 
Compassed  a  world !    She  wove  a  mystic  thread 
Enduring,  strong,  from  heart  to  heart,  to  bind 
Souls  consecrated;  then  in  emblem  twined 
White  ribbon  in  a  knot  of  love,  and  said: 
I  call  you,  oh,  my  sisters,  by  this  sign: 
Live  unto  God,  let  streams  of  home  love  flood 
Lands  far  and  near,  before  its  power  divine 
Apollyon  flies!    The  earth  on  which  Christ  stood 
Reels  in  its  weakness,  for  its  aid  combine, 
Dare  everything  in  strength  of  Love  and  God!'" 

The  City  Temple,  London.  DR.  JOSEPH  PARKER. 


I  am  thankful  for  the  opportunity  of  sharing  in  the  tribute  to  the  memory  of 
Frances  E.  Willard.  Although  I  saw  her  only  once  or  twice,  the  impression  that 
she  left  was  that  of  a  beautiful  soul,  inspired  with  the  loftiest  aims,  wholly  devoted 
to  the  service  of  God  and  man,  and  yet  with  a  simplicity  that  amounted  almost 
to  self-forgetfulness.  I  need  not  speak  of  the  great  service  she  has  rendered  the 
cause  of  total  abstinence  throughout  the  world ;  her  memory  will  be  a  strength 
and  inspiration  to  all  who  are  engaged  in  the  fight  against  the  ravages  of  strong 
drink.  One  of  the  greatest  distinctions  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  that  woman 
has  taken  her  place  on  the  public  platform,  and  has  dedicated  her  voice  to  the 
furtherance  of  great  moral  questions.  Among  these  there  are  two  of  whom  one 
has  come  to  think  as  almost  one,  whose  splendid  services  have  been  preemi- 
nently blessed.  Their  memory  will  be  forever  associated  and  gratefully  treasured, 
their  work  and  words  are  immortal.  Those  two  are  Frances  E.  Willard  and 
Lady  Henry  Somerset.  THE  REV.  MARK  GUY  PEARSE. 

London,  Eng.  

Frances  Willard' s  bright  and  blessed  life  has  left  behind  a  long  trail  of  light. 
Truly  she  has  passed  through  the  world  and  has  left  it  better  than  she  found 
it.  Thousands  in  England  and  America  will  bless  her  name.  She  has  been  an 
inspiration  and  an  uplift  to  them  in  every  sense.  To  know  Frances  Willard  was 
to  admire  and  to  love  her.  There  was  a  rare  combination  in  her  of  power, 
breadth  of  mind  and  intellect,  humility  and  love.  I  can  see  her  now  as  she  rose 
to  speak  in  the  Queen's  Hall  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  British  Women's  Tem- 
perance Association  in  1896.  A  perfect  ovation  met  her,  cheer  upon  cheer,  and 


MEMORIAL    VOLUME 
414 

then  perfect  silence  as  she  spoke  in  her  own  inimitable  way,  full  of  power,  breadth 
and  sympathy;  suffering  as  she  was  at  the  time,  pain  was  nothmg  m  companson 
to  the  deliverance  of  the  message  that  she  bore. 

We  rejoice  in  her  happiness,  and  look  forward  to  that  meetmg  of  which  she 
used  to  speak  when  she  said,  "  In  Heaven  we  shall  have  plenty  of  tame  to  talk 
over  all  these  things ;  here  we  are  too  busy. " 

Royal  Sailors'  Rest,  Portsmouth,  Eng.  AGNES  WESTON. 

To  know  Frances  Willard  was  an  inspiration.     I  was  at  the  first  meeting 
which  she  addressed  in  London  and  she  cast  a  spell  over  ™  «h,ch  -1    eve 
remain      What  a  delightfully  unaffected  platform  style  she  had  !     Indeed  it  was 
noT  a    '  platform  style  »  ;  it  was  her  own  sweet,  witty  and  winning  conversation ,  m 
a  slightly  louder  but  never  a  harsh  key  heard  from  a  h.gher  sphere.     A  few 
sentences  and  she  had  conquered  every  member  of  her  audience.     The  hsteners 
were  he?admirers  for  life.     I  was  blessed  with  her  acquaintance  and  she  found 
time  in  the  midst  of  her  arduous  duties  to  write  once  and  agam  to  encourage 
when  the  powers  of  evil  seemed  uppermost  and  to  cheer  when  the   R  gh 
trLmphed.     She  loved  London  and  took  the  keenest  interest  m  the  work  o  frts 
CwnW  Council      It  was  delightful  to  see  how  the  Londoners  forgave  and  forgot 
Lr  sfght  American  accent  when  listening  to  her  racy  but  always   uphftmg 
addresses      It  was  more  delightful  to  hear  her  speak  in  her  beloved  Amenca  - 
as  I  Sd  at  Boston -when  standing  by  John  Burns  she  pleaded  the  cause  of  the 
workers  and  praised  the  temperance  example  winch  the  labor  leader  set  to  Ins 
Mows      No  woman  that  I  ever  met  conjured  up  such  a  vision  of  the  women  of 
h    Mayflower.     She  seemed  to  step  from  the  fresco  of  the  lobby  of  the  House 
ol  Commons  to  preach  the  truths  for  which  her  ancestors  suffered, 
might  truly  be  said, 

"When  pain  and  anguish  wring  the  brow, 

A  ministering  angel  thou." 
London  County  Council.  I-  W.LL.AMS  BENN. 

From  the  first  time  I  heard  of  Miss  Willard,  on  the  occasion  of  *£»*» 
the  United  States  some  years  ago,  I  have  always  and  '"creasmgly ;  «a -d  <ha 
she  was  the  most  distinguished  and  influential  woman  on  the  other  s,A    of  the 
Auntie.     Everyone  by'some  inesistible  impulse  or  instmct  •^^^ 
gave  her  the  first  place.     She  was  a  queen  among  women      It  ,s  d       ult  to d.s 
Wangle  my  personal  reminiscences  from  what  I  have  heard  and  read  of  her 
emlable'life.     Her  own  delightfully  written  autobiography 
her  modesty  and  reticence,  inevitably  discloses  a  most  powerful 


CHARACTER  SKETCHES-  TRIBUTES  4,5 

unusually  tender  heart.     She  had  extraordinary  gifts  and  was  highly  eultu  ed 

^1^7^^  a'traCted  eVeryb°^'  h£r  P-enceU  a    a;  a 
1-ng  and  healmg  mfluence,  she  lifted  everybody  and  everything  into  the 

s^fhis;;^"0;^™0110"3^ duty-  ™&%£&K£ 

tually  walked  w,th  Chnst,  narrowness  and  smallness  and  unworthy  senti- 
ment were  ,mposs,ble;  the  microbes  of  jealousy  and  rivalry,  of  worldly  aLTtfon 
and  petty  stnfe  could  not  live  on  the  sunlit  heights  where/she  saw  God  tee™ 

On  the  few  occasions  when  I  actually  met  her  or  had  correspondence  with 

si  uato7San7the'mPreS5ed-by  the  *"**  **  Whkh  5he  '"'"Wvdy  seizedle 
situat,on  and  the  mam  point  at  once,  by  the  moral  courage  with  which  she 

sS  with  wheic7ShaUd1°UHS  ?riS'ian  entCTpriSeS  a"d  ^  ^contagious  entu! 
s  asm  with  which  she  applauded  everything  that  was  energetically  progressive  in 
all  departments  of  human  life.  It  was  so  evident  that  she  liked  strong  pu  no  e 
and  resolute  endeavor  and  bold  advance  and  high  ideal.  The  more  I  became 

wTllterln  hfT  and  h"  CharaCtCr'  the  ™°re  d«^  '  -lized  that  si6 

was  1,  terally  one  of  the  greatest  and  best  of  her  sex,  capable  both  of  grasping 
and  of  ongmatmg  vast  comprehensive  ideas  and  equal  to  the  demands  of  any 
'on  mint  b  if.^""  hersdf-  "<—  difficult,  however  exalted  that  posi- 
for  wZ  h  M  A  r  ^  Cann°t  suffident!y  P™**  God  for  what  she  was  and 

of  tL  worM      H      ,  m°,e  SUCH  W°men'  a  Ve^  f™'  would  cha"«e  "«  f-e 

fhle  h  r  taf  KS       Ve  rev°lutlons  of  righteousness  that  at  present  seem  impos- 
ble ,  butwh.ch  become  promptly  easy  when  strong  and  gentle  souls  are  filled 
with  the  Sp,nt  of  God.  THE  REV.  HUGH  PR,CE  HUGHES, 

Superintendent  of  the  West  London  Mission. 

Flowers  more  exquisite  than  were  ever  blown  in  my  poor  garden,  and  hands 
t  than  mine  to  weave  them,  are  needed  for  her  memory  whom  we  here 
commemorate;  but  I  am  very  glad  to  cast  a  handful  of  violets  and  forget-me-nots 
on  the  memorial  tablet.     We  met  for  the  first  time  on  the  deck  of  an  Atlantic 
er,  on  the  evening  before  reaching  Queenstown.     She  had  been  very  ill  and 
'emed  as  fragrfe  and  transparent  as  a  casket  of  very  rare  china -but  what  a  pure 
intense  spirit  burnt  within  as  fire.     We  knew  of  each  other;  she  had  read 
iome  things  that  I  had  written,  and  our  souls  leapt  to  acknowledge  a  kind  of  com- 
-ship  and  kinship;  then  we  sat  down  to  talk  and  did  little  else  for  so  long  as 
her  strength  lasted.     How  merry  she  was  that  night,  with  her  pencil  in  hand  as 
we  interviewed  each  other,  I  for  my  magazine  and  she  for  hers.     But  somehow 
er  questions  went  strangely  to  my  heart,  and  searched  where  only  a  very  delicate 
tender  perception  of  the  mechanism  of  the  soul  could  penetrate.      From  that 
moment  we  became  fast  friends,  and  wherever  we  met,  there  was  the  glance  of 


4i 6  MEMORIAL    VOLUME 

recognition,  which  those  give  who  have  entered  a  little  way,  at  least,  into  the 
secrets  of  each  other's  lives.  There  have  not  been  many  opportunities  of  taking 
up  and  carrying  forward  that  intercourse,  so  happily  begun.  Life  was  so  full  for 
the  woman  who  had  learnt  the  secret  of  utilizing  the  great  stores  of  womanly  love 
and  skill  for  the  healing  of  the  open  sores  of  the  world.  How  to  characterize 
her  !  So  many  qualities  met  and  blended  in  her  richly  endowed  nature.  Sensi- 
tive as  the  eye  to  the  breath  of  the  wind,  or  the  aspen  to  the  breeze,  she  was 
instantly  affected  by  her  surroundings,  whether  of  flowers,  or  music,  or  scenes  of 
beauty,  appreciation  or  affection ;  but  she  was  strong  as  basalt  in  the  principles  of 
faith  and  conduct  which  underpenned  her  character;  no  persuasion  or  influence 
could  make  her  swerve  from  these,  when  once  they  possessed  her.  A  tender 
grace  and  beauty  of  style  combined  with  terse  and  vigorous  eloquence.  Warm 
in  her  sympathy  with  the  suffering,  the  downtrodden  and  sorrowful;  but  terrible 
in  her  denunciation  of  wrongdoing.  Animated  by  purposes  that  engirdled  the 
world,  but  strong  and  intense  in  her  special  and  particular  friendships.  With  the 
mastery  of  great  principles,  but  apt  to  deal  with  small  details,  and  an  adept  in  the 
niceties  of  domestic  management  and  the  woman's  province  in  the  home.  Witty, 
and  if  occasion  required,  caustic,  and  yet  so  light  in  her  raillery  and  gentle  in  her 
spirit  that  those  who  elicited  her  retorts  were  not  hurt  or  irritated.  The 
acknowledged  leader  of  noble  women,  but  equally  admired  by  the  sterner  sex, 
whom  she  so  often  addressed  as  Brothers. 

The  heart  of  her  heart  was  devotion  to  our  Lord.  How  well  I  remember  the 
last  time  I  saw  her,  at  the  residence  of  her  devoted  friend,  Lady  Henry  Somerset, 
at  Reigate.  She  was  much  overwrought,  and  compelled  to  keep  her  chamber. 
As  I  entered,  she  accosted  me  as  the  shepherd  who  had  come  to  see  after  the  sick 
sheep;  and  as  I  spoke  or  read  or  quoted  hymns  or  prayed,  there  was  such  a  sym- 
pathetic hearing,  so  instant  and  hearty  a  response.  That  scene  is  vivid  with  me 
still  and  will  be.  But  she  is  well  today;  and  if  the  first  rapture  of  the  vision  of 
the  Lord  has  passed,  we  may  think  of  her  as  turning  her  thoughts  again  upon 
the  world  she  loved  so  much;  and  for  evermore  she  will  be  divided  between  her 
rapture  of  devotion  to  her  Lord  keeping  her  near  His  Person,  and  her  yearning 
love  to  bring  nearer  others  who  have  not  learnt  or  realized  so  much  as  she. 
Sister,  we  haste  to  the  reunion.  It  is  but  a  thin  veil  that  parts  us,  and  heaven  is 
even  lovelier  now  because  thou  hast  entered  it. 

London,  Eng.  THE  REV.  F.  B.  MEYER. 


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